Rica Erickson (d.2009)

Rica Erickson’s early illustrated books, Orchids of the West (1951), Triggerplants (1958), and Plants of Prey in Australia (1968) have inspired botanical artists for decades. These guidebooks combined wonderful illustrations, simplicity of expression and good scientific information which encouraged readers to be inquisitive and to look closely at plants in the Western Australian bush. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Rica contributed articles to magazines such as Wildlife, Outdoors and the Australian Orchid Review. She died in September 2009, a year after launching Brush with Gondwana at the age of 100.