Kathleen Basford

Kathleen Basford (6 September 1916 – 20 December 1998) was a British botanist, with a special interest in genetics. She is known for discovering a form of fuchsia that was a cross between a New Zealand and Mexican fuchsia, proving this form of flower existed 20–30million years ago, before the continents had separated.

Life Basford was born in Grantham in 1916 and developed her interest in botany from her nanny, Winny, who taught her how to identify types of trees and wildflowers.

She studied at Harrogate Ladies College where biology was not on the curriculum.

Basford's study of the Green Man continued late into her life. In 1991, she published a review in the journal Folklore responding to William Anderson's Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with Nature. In the review, she discusses the fluidity of symbolic interpretation and the importance of personal background in iconographic study.