Libby Houston

Early life

Libby Houston was born Elizabeth Maynard Houston on 9 December 1941 in North London, England, and was raised in the West Country. She was educated at Lady Margaret Hall of the University of Oxford. In 1966, she married illustrator and musician Malcolm Dean (1941–1974) in Somerset. Houston published her first collection of poetry, A Stained Glass Raree Show, in 1967, followed by Plain Clothes in 1971, At the Mercy in 1980 (all with Allison & Busby), Necessity in 1988 (Slow Dancer), A Little Treachery in 1990 (Circle Press), and All Change in 1993 (Oxford University Press). The poet has appeared on BBC radio broadcasts for children since the early 1970s. She was widowed in 1974 and married Roderick Jewell in 1979, moving that year to Bristol. Houston received a certificate in Science Biology from the University of Bristol.

Research at the University of Bristol

Houston assisted Lewis Frost in what was previously known as the Department of Botany at the University of Bristol in his study of the flora of Avon Gorge in Bristol. The research included rare flora such as Spiked Speedwell (Veronica spicata) and Bristol Rockcress (Arabis scabra). Her interest in the Avon Gorge flora was enhanced by her rock climbing prowess, which allowed her to study plants inaccessible to others. More recent work has been performed in conjunction with Simon Hiscock, Professor of Botany at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol, as well as Tim Rich, head of the vascular plant section at the National Museum Wales. That collaboration has centred on Avon Gorge whitebeams (Sorbus).

She discovered a new hybrid of the tree, to which her name has been given, on a cliff of the Avon Gorge in 2005. Houston found the rare Houston's Whitebeam (Sorbus x houstoniae), a hybrid between the Common Whitebeam (Sorbus aria) and the Bristol Whitebeam (Sorbus bristoliensis). The single existing example which has been found is only accessible with ropes. The Houston's Whitebeam was one of fourteen new whitebeam trees officially named in the February 2009 issue of Watsonia, the journal of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. Five of those new trees were discovered in Bristol. Houston's research also included the Wye Valley, where she discovered three of the new whitebeams.

Houston is a member of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, and the Somerset Rare Plants Group. In April 2012, the botanist and poet participated in the exhibition at Bradbury Hall, Henleaze, Bristol, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Bristol Naturalists' Society. She is also a participant in the Avon Gorge & Downs Wildlife Project, which was established in 1999 to protect the Bristol side of the Avon Gorge and Downs and to increase awareness of the site.

H. H. Bloomer Award

On 24 May 2012, Houston, a research associate at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol, received the H. H. Bloomer Award from the Linnean Society of London to acknowledge her contribution to natural history, in particular to the body of knowledge of Avon Gorge flora and British whitebeams. The mission of the Linnean Society, founded in 1788, was stated in their first charter, "the cultivation of the Science of Natural History in all its branches." The H. H. Bloomer Award, which was established in 1963, was named after Harry Howard Bloomer, a naturalist who wrote a series of malacological papers over a period of more than fifty years. The silver medal is awarded by the society to an "amateur naturalist who has made an important contribution to biological knowledge."