{{Short description|British botanist (1927–2017)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} '''Iris Sheila Collenette''' (née '''Darnton''') (26 August 1927 – 24 July 2017) was a British botanist, plant collector, and author.<ref name="Mccoy">{{cite journal |last1=Mccoy |first1=Tom A |title=Iris Sheila Collenette (1927–2017) |journal=Cactus and Succulent Journal |date=September 2017 |volume=89 |issue=5 |pages=236–238 |doi=10.2985/015.089.0506|s2cid=89999571 }}</ref><ref name="plants.jstor">{{cite journal |title=Collenette, Iris Sheila (1927-) on JSTOR |url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000080114 |website=plants.jstor.org |accessdate=8 March 2019 }}</ref>
==Life== Collenette was born 26th August 1927 at Cranbrook in Kent. She was the daughter of Old Etonian Rupert Edward Darnton DFC (born Rupert, Baron von Schunck in 1895) and Ornithologist Iris Dorie Moreton (1900 -1984), daughter of John Smith Moreton (1858-1948) and Julia Lucy (1864-1940) of Pickenham Hall, Norfolk which was situated in extensive botanical grounds.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=clxAaBfDZH0C&pg=PA850&dq=Schintz+john+moreton&hl=ja&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2wMWA7ouUAxXjsVYBHctOPA8Q6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=Schintz%20john%20moreton&f=false |title=British Medical Journal |date=1897 |publisher=British Medical Association |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pickenham Hall, South Pickenham - 1001011 {{!}} Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001011 |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=historicengland.org.uk |language=en}}</ref> Julia was elder daughter of Swiss born Hans Gaspard Schintz (1837 - 1912), of Childwall Hall, Liverpool. Schintz, a merchant specialising in the extraction and marketing of Chilean nitrates. Collenette's uncle was composer Christian Darnton, born in 1905 and also known as Baron von Schunck.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Burke |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and .... |url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Genealogical_and_Heraldic_History_of_t/InoHD0N_Jp0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=baron+von+schunck&pg=PA2607&printsec=frontcover |publisher=Burke's Peerage |access-date=12 December 2024 |page=2607 |date=1933 |quote=Foreign Titles of Nobility -... Rupert Edward Darnton, DFC - born 15 July 1895... educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge - [grandson of] Edward, Baron von Schunck (1816-1889) father of Iris Shiela, born 26th August 1927... Phillip Christian born 1905... }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Schaarwächter|first1=Jürgen|title=Two Centuries of British Symphonism: From the beginnings to 1945. A preliminary survey. With a foreword by Lewis Foreman. Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIvoCQAAQBAJ&q=von+schunck&pg=PA431|publisher=Georg Olms Verlag|date= 27 February 2015|access-date=15 November 2016|page=431. Chapter: Expansion of the 'academically feasible'|isbn=9783487152271|quote=Christian Darnton (Baron von Schunck)...(nr. Leeds)... son of exceptionally wealthy parents, .....}}</ref> She married the geologist Peter Collenette in 1955.<ref name="Manson">{{cite news |last1=Manson |first1=Joy |title=A life of danger in search of rare orchids |work=The Times |issue=56837 |page=13 |date=12 January 1967}}</ref>
Her husband took a job as chief geologist in Saudi Arabia and Collenette took the opportunity to visit the country and collect botanical specimens.<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America: Volume 75, Issues 1–6 |date=2003 |chapter=Sheila Collenette |page=50}}</ref> She became noted for her work on the flora there, particularly her books ''An illustrated guide to the flowers of Saudi Arabia'' and ''Wildflowers of Saudi Arabia''.<ref name="Mccoy" /><ref name="plants.jstor" /> The species ''Aloe sheilae'' and ''Rhytidocaulon sheilae'' and Echinops sheilae were named in her honour.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eggli |first1=Urs |last2=Newton |first2=Leonard E. |title=Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names |date=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=9783662071250 |page=220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gf3uCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 |accessdate=8 March 2019 |language=en}}</ref> She collected the holotype of ''Hypericum collenetteae'', named by Norman Robson.<ref name=HO/> She identified at least fourteen species.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tropicos {{!}} Person – Collenette, Iris Sheila |url=http://www.tropicos.org/Person/16913?tab=names |website=www.tropicos.org |accessdate=8 March 2019}}</ref> {{botanist|Collen.|inline=yes}}
== Works == *{{cite book |last1=Collenette |first1=Sheila |title=An illustrated guide to the flowers of Saudi Arabia |date=1985 |publisher=Scorpion |isbn=9780905906454 |language=English|oclc=924681691 }}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barneby |first1=Rupert C. |last2=Colenette |first2=Sheila |title=An Illustrated Guide to the Flowers of Saudi Arabia. |journal=Brittonia |date=October 1986 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=430 |doi=10.2307/2807095|jstor=2807095 |s2cid=81591898 }}</ref> *{{cite book |last1=Collenette |first1=Sheila |title=Wildflowers of Saudi Arabia |date=1999 |publisher=NCWCD |language=English|oclc=924045825 }} *{{cite book |last1=Collenette |first1=Sheila |title=A checklist of botanical species in Saudi Arabia |date=1998 |publisher=International Asclepiad Society |isbn=9780953237609 |language=English|oclc=38854653 }}
== References == <references>
<ref name=HO>{{Cite web |last1=Pattinson |first1=David |last2=Robson |first2=Norman |author-link2=Norman Robson (botanist) |last3=Nürk |first3=Nicolai |last4=Crockett |first4=Sarah |title=''Hypericum collenettiae'' [N. Robson] Nomenclature |url=http://hypericum.myspecies.info/taxonomy/term/972/ |website=Hypericum Online |access-date=2021-05-13}}</ref>
</references>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Collenette, Iris Sheila}} Category:1927 births Category:2017 deaths Category:British women botanists Category:20th-century British botanists Category:20th-century British women biologists Category:21st-century British botanists Category:21st-century British women scientists
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