Audrey Eagle

Audrey Lily Eagle CNZM (born 1925) is an eminent New Zealand botanical illustrator, whose work has mainly focused on New Zealand's distinctive trees and shrubs. As the author and illustrator of the two volume Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand Eagle has made a notable contribution to New Zealand botany.

Work

Eagle began in 1954 to paint plants in order to assist with learning their botanical names. By 1968 she started planning a book with examples of every genus of tree and shrub in New Zealand. In 1975, after more than twenty years of work, Eagle's Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand in Colour was published. The book contained illustrations of 228 species, reproduced in life-size, with meticulous notes on identification, distribution and the source of the illustrated material. In 1982, she published a second book, illustrating a further 405 species and varieties. Both books were revised in 1986 to bring the nomenclature up to date. However, as a result of botanical research, a further revision was necessary. In 2006 Te Papa Press published the two-volume edition incorporating all of Eagle's previous illustrations, together with a further 173 new paintings, under the title Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand.

Honours and awards

Eagle was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to botanical art. In 2007, the 2006 two-volume edition of Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand earned her the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction and the Booksellers Choice award. The University of Otago conferred an honorary doctor of science degree on her in Dunedin at a graduation ceremony on 4 May 2013.