Bernard Verdcourt was a biologist and taxonomist, most widely known as a botanist and latterly an honorary research fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London. Prior to coming to Kew in 1964, he was associated with the East African Herbarium for 15 years. Although his best-known work probably consists of his many studies of the East African flora, he has also made extensive contributions relating to African terrestrial mollusks and to entomology. Dr. Verdcourt received the Linnean Medal for botany from the Linnean Society of London in 2000. His list of publications includes more than 1,000 scientific works. The standard author abbreviation Verdc. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.