Born Celia Elizabeth Prince,[1][2] she began painting Australian wildflowers early in her artistic career. She first began painting Banksias after seeing a Banksia serrata near her home in Orbost, Victoria. Her first exhibition was at Leveson Gallery in Melbourne in 1965, and included three watercolours of Banksia species. Two years later she published Wildflowers of Victoria.[3]
In 1970, Rosser was appointed Science Faculty Artist at Monash University. She illustrated Peter Bridgewater's The Saltmarsh Plants of Southern Australia and The Mosses of Southern Australia by George Scott and Ilma Grace Stone. In 1974 she was appointed University Botanical Artist, and began the project of painting every Banksia species. The project took over 25 years to complete, and resulted in the publication of a three volume monograph entitled The Banksias, with accompanying text by Alex George. Publication of the final volume in 2000 represented the first time that such a large genus has been entirely painted.[3]
In 2001, Peter Olde and Neil Marriott published a description of a new Banksia species from the arid shrubland of Western Australia, naming it Banksia rosserae in Rosser's honour.[2]
Since 2002, the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne have awarded the "Celia Rosser Medal for Botanical Art" to outstanding exhibitors at their "The Art of Botanical Illustration" exhibition.
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and heads. Banksias range in size from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up to 30 metres (100 ft) tall. They are found in a wide variety of landscapes: sclerophyll forest, (occasionally) rainforest, shrubland, and some more arid landscapes, though not in Australia's deserts.
Alexander Segger George is an Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra. The "bizarre" Restionaceae genus Alexgeorgea was named in his honour in 1976.
Banksia rosserae is a recently described species of Banksia. Endemic to inland Western Australia, it is the only Banksia species to occur solely within the arid zone.
The Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) (ANPSA) is a federation of seven state-based member organisations for people interested in Australia's native flora, both in aspects of conservation and in cultivation.
Banksia canei, commonly known as the mountain banksia, is a species of shrub that is endemic to southeastern Australia. It is generally encountered as a many-branched shrub that grows up to 3 m (10 ft) high, with narrow leaves and the yellow inflorescences appearing from late summer to early winter. The old flowers fall off the spikes and up to 150 finely furred follicles develop, which remain closed until burnt in a bushfire. Each follicle bears two winged seeds. Response to fire is poorly known, although it is thought to regenerate by seed. Birds such as the yellow-tufted honeyeater and various insects forage among the flower spikes. It is frost tolerant in cultivation, but copes less well with aridity or humidity and is often short-lived in gardens. One cultivar, Banksia 'Celia Rosser', was registered in 1978, but has subsequently vanished.
The taxonomy of Banksia integrifolia has a long and complex history, the result of confusion caused by the species' great variability, and similarities with some closely related species. The existence of hybrids between B. integrifolia and related species as well as early attempts to classify the species based on dried specimen material have also contributed to the confusion.
Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges taxonomic arrangement of Banksia, published in 1996, was a novel taxonomic arrangement that was intended to align the taxonomy of Banksia more closely with the phylogeny that they had inferred from their cladistic analysis of the genus. It replaced Alex George's 1981 arrangement, but most aspects were not accepted by George, and it was soon replaced by a 1999 revision of George's arrangement. However some herbaria have continued to follow Thiele and Ladiges on some points.
The Banksias, by Celia Rosser, is a three-volume series of monographs containing paintings of every Banksia species. Its publication represented the first time such a large genus had been entirely painted by a single botanical artist. It has been described as "one of the outstanding botanical works of this century."
Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species. They are generally meant to be scientifically descriptive about subjects depicted and are often found printed alongside a botanical description in books, magazines, and other media. Some are sold as artworks. Often composed by a botanical illustrator in consultation with a scientific author, their creation requires an understanding of plant morphology and access to specimens and references.
Sarah Anne Drake (1803–1857) was an English botanical illustrator who worked for John Lindley and collaborated with Augusta Innes Withers, Nathaniel Wallich and others.
Emily Harriet Pelloe was a botanical illustrator, and author of books, of the flowering plants of Western Australia. Her work in watercolour, extensive illustrations, and English language descriptions were included in a number of publications on the flora of the State.
Mary Emily Eaton was an English botanical artist best known for illustrating Britton & Rose's The Cactaceae, published between 1919 and 1923.
Philippa Mary Nikulinsky is an artist and botanical illustrator based in Western Australia.
Anne Marie Trechslin was a Swiss painter, wood engraver, draftsperson and illustrator.
Margaret Lilian Flockton, is most commonly recognized as a botanical artist famous for her botanical illustrations of "The Forest Flora of New South Wales", "A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus", and the genus Opuntia, all by the botanist and forester, Joseph Henry Maiden. She was also a painter, commercial artist, and art teacher at different points of her life. She was the first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. She was also the first female lithographer in Australia which gave her a high reputation at the time.
Margaret Pieroni is a Western Australian botanical artist, photographer and botanist who has authored, co-authored or illustrated many books on Australian botany.
William Lancashire Cane (1911–1987) was an Australian plantsman who introduced many new native plant species, forms and hybrids into cultivation.
Bessie Niemeyer Marshall was an American botanical illustrator known for her watercolor paintings of the wildflowers of Lee Memorial Park. Her artwork documented the variety of plant species being preserved in Lee Memorial Park, a Works Progress Administration-funded wildflower and bird sanctuary in Petersburg, Virginia.
Elizabeth Vivienne Conabere was an Australian botanical artist, writer and conservationist. Conabere provided paintings and illustrations of plants for publications and series of stamps, and exhibited her works in galleries across her home state of Victoria, Australia. Among her works are Wildflowers of South-eastern Australia (1974) and An Australian Countrywoman's Diary (1986). Conabere was also active in conservation institutions.
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