John Bartlett (botanist)

Bartlett's lichen and bryophyte collections are represented in New Zealand and international museum collections. Auckland Museum holds the holotype of Bartlettiella fragilis, a lichen genus he first collected in the north west Ruahine Range, and there are Bartlett specimens in the Natural History Museum, London. Bartlett added some fifty species of mosses to the New Zealand flora. In 1985,a new family of mosses, the Hypnobartlettiaceae, was named in his honour (based on specimens he collected in North West Nelson). In addition to collecting specimens, Bartlett published around 24 scientific publications.

An extract of a letter written by Bartlett to Galloway in January 1982 illustrates his indefategible approach

While searching for liverworts in 1975, Bartlett came across an unusual species of rātā growing at Radar Bush, 9.5 km south-east of Cape Reinga. His attention was drawn to the tree’s distinctive bark, which is spongy, whitish and flakes easily, but he was unable to reach any branches. He took bark fragments to Victoria University botanist John Dawson, who was unconvinced that the tree was unusual. Bartlett returned to the area with a rifle, with which he was able to shoot off a branch. It was ten years before its white flowers were seen by scientists in 1984, appearing ‘like snow over the tree crowns’ and allowing the new species to be formally described and named Metrosideros bartlettii, known as Bartlett's rātā, or rātā moehau in Māori. Bartlett's rātā is now grown as a garden plant, but only 13 adult Bartlett's rātā are known to still exist in the wild.

From the mid-1970s Bartlett began collecting lichens. He sent specimens to specialists around the world, and David Galloway, the New Zealand lichenologist, recalled that from 1977 to 1985 Bartlett provided him "with an apparently inexhaustible supply of new and critical material for the New Zealand lichen flora".

John Kenneth Bartlett (7 December 1945 – 1 May 1986) was a New Zealand plant collector and botanist who specialised in mosses, liverworts, and lichens. In 1974, he found Bartlett's rātā growing south-east of Cape Reinga.

Bartlett was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, on 7 December 1945, and was an only child. He attended the Marist Brothers school (now St John's College) in Hamilton, where he became Dux. He studied mathematics at Auckland University, the University of Queensland in Brisbane, and finally Sydney University, where he gained his Master's degree. On his return to New Zealand, Bartlett worked as a teacher at Auckland Grammar School and at Sacred Heart College where, at his death on 1 May 1986, he was Head of Science.