Jean Annette Paton

Jean Annette Paton (née Cumming or Comyn; 4 January 1929 – 10 August 2026) was a British botanist, bryologist and botanical illustrator. She wrote many books on the bryology of the United Kingdom and the flora of Cornwall, and described several new species.

Paton has been called the "queen of vice-county recording" for her prolific records of bryological specimens in the second half of the 20th century. She was president of the British Bryological Society in 1976 and 1977.

Paton attended Bedford College, London from 1947. She later completed an MSc with a dissertation on the bryophytes of the sandstone rocks of Kent and Sussex. Eric Vernon Watson called it a "landmark in the study of British liverworts". Paton published a supplement to The Liverwort Flora in 2022.

In 2001, she and Pat published Magnolias in Cornish Gardens and in 2005, she published Bryophyte Flora of the Isles of Scilly with David Holyoak. Ditrichum cornubicum, Lophocolea brookwoodiana, Telaranea murphyae and Fissidens celticus. In addition to this, she added many species to the list of bryophytes known in Britain, including Southbya tophacea, Lophocolea semeteres, and Marsupella profunda. and to the Natural History Museum, London.

Honours Paton was president of the British Bryological Society in 1976 and 1977 and was elected an honorary member in 1987. She was awarded an MBE in the 2003 New Year Honours for services to biology and nature conservation.

Personal life and death Paton married Valentine 'Pat' Paton in October 1952.