Dr Evans made significant contributions to several areas of plant physiology. He was the first to find a long day plant which responds to a single photoinductive cycle, and has used the species, Lolium temulentum, to make a varied experimental attack on the processes in the leaf which react so sensitively to daylength, and on those at the shoot apex which result in the differentiation of flowers. This work, and that with several other plants sensitive to daylength, led to the view that the induction of flowering is controlled by several, interacting hormones rather than by one specific floral hormone. He was also concerned with the interactions between photosynthesis, translocation and carbohydrate storage in the evolution of yield capacity in wheat. Strong feedback interactions between these processes have been demonstrated. He was much concerned with the analysis of plant responses to several climatic factors, especially light, as a basis for the design of the Canberra phytotron, which, it is widely conceded, is the most effective installation of its kind.
Dr Lloyd Evans AO FRS died on 23 March 2015.
Biographical Memoir
Subject groups
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Patterns in Populations
Plant sciences / botany
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Earth and Environmental Sciences
Agricultural and forest science
