After working in a variety of technical jobs, including with the Forests Commission of Victoria and the Botany Department of The University of Melbourne, Ian Clarke was for many years employed in the plant identification service of the National Herbarium of Victoria. He transferred to a position as honorary associate there in 2003. He is the author and illustrator of a companion text, Name those Grasses: Identifying Grasses, Sedges and Rushes, published by the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in 2015. Between 1975 and 1990 he was associated with the Council of Adult Education in Melbourne as a tutor in flowering plant identification.
Helen Lee holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Melbourne. After lecturing in botany for two years at Queen's University, Belfast, she was for many years a part-time tutor in the botany departments of Melbourne and LaTrobe Universities, and a tutor with the Melbourne Council of Adult Education. Upon retirement, she took up a position as Honorary Research Fellow in the Botany Department, LaTrobe University. Her research interests included the morphological characteristics of plants that resprout after fire, and arid zone ecology. She has been a member of the Royal Society of Victoria and the Australian Systematic Botany Society. Their collaboration on this book brings together over thirty years of involvement in tertiary and adult education.
