My friend Donald Pigott, who has died aged 94, was the last surviving founding professor of Lancaster University, and as a plant ecologist was influential in setting up the National Vegetation Survey in the 1970s, the first detailed classification of the range of plant species and their distribution within the vegetation types of the British Isles. The results were published in five volumes between 1991 and 2000, and have formed the basis for many other ecological studies.
Donald was born in Sutton, Surrey, to John, a tea importer, and his wife, Helen (nee Lee). His mother taught him to recognise many plant species from an early age, and at Mill Hill school in north London, which was evacuated to Cumbria in the second world war, he developed a fascination with the countryside.
After graduating in botany from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1951, Donald accepted a lectureship in botany at Sheffield University, where he became an expert on the vegetation of Upper Teesdale in county Durham, now a national nature reserve.
In 1960 he returned to Cambridge University as a lecturer in botany. Four years later he was appointed to the new Lancaster University, where he led the creation of a pioneering degree in ecology.
In 1975 he instigated the National Vegetation Survey under his own supervision, and in 1977 he was involved in a campaign to save the limestone pavements at Gait Barrows in Cumbria, resulting in the area being designated a national nature reserve.
In 1984 Donald returned to Cambridge as director of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, which was then under threat from cost savings. He fought successfully to secure its long-term future and even presided over the opening of a fine new tropical house there. Around that time he also served on the council of the National Trust (1980-86).
Among his many interests, Donald had a comprehensive knowledge of lime trees, which led in 2012 to his book Lime Trees and Basswoods, illustrated with his beautifully accurate drawings. In retirement in the Lake District from 1995 onwards, his fine garden included an arboretum of limes. He kept up with his academic interests until the end, and his final research paper was published in 2020 at the age of 92.
Donald is survived by his second wife, Sheila (nee Megaw), whom he married in 1986, by Sheila’s two daughters from a previous marriage, Bridget and Ruth, and by a daughter, Julia, from his first marriage to Margaret (nee Beatson), who died in 1981.
