KEY PERSONNEL
John Burrows is a world renowned botanist, a dedicated scientist-conservator and educator whose expertise and passion have inspired numerous students over many years. Author of a number of influential works of reference, his most recent is The Trees and Shrubs of Mozambique, a major contribution to science and conservation as the first comprehensive description of the country’s flora, under massive threat from human activity and exploitation.
Barbara Turpin first came to Buffelskloof as a volunteer in 2009; since then she has become a leading expert on BRAHMS, the database developed at Oxford University as part of the project to co-ordinate global biodiversity studies. Regularly called on to give courses at top herbaria across South Africa, she also travels widely in Europe and Africa visiting herbaria and collecting plant specimens. A keen musician, Barbara also teaches the viola in local schools.
Sandie Burrows is a prize-winning botanical artist and illustrator, whose many thousands of drawings have illustrated publications including works by herself and her husband John. A botanist with a particular interest in the Asparagaceae family of flowering plants, of which she has discovered several new species, Sandie is also an expert on drift seeds, a subject of great topical interest and importance in the development of the theory of evolution; Darwin himself being fascinated by this subject. A book on drift seed is currently nearing completion.