Oleg Vladimirovitch Polunin (November 1914 – July 1985) was an English botanist, teacher and traveller. He was one of three brothers with interests in the natural sciences. Nicholas Polunin (1909–1997) was an environmentalist and Ivan Polunin (1920-2010) was a photographer and ethnographist.

Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, Oleg Polunin taught at Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

 in Godalming

Godalming

Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 for over 30 years, later devoting his time to writing popular and authoritative guides to the flora of Europe and the Himalaya. His most well-known work is Flowers of Europe (1969), a classic text for both botanists and general readers. Polunin travelled widely in pursuit of samples and photographs, and he discovered several new species.
He was awarded the Linnean Society’s H. H. Bloomer Award

H. H. Bloomer Award

The H. H. Bloomer Award is an award of the Linnean Society established in 1963 from a legacy by the amateur naturalist Harry Howard Bloomer, awarded "an amateur naturalist who has made an important contribution to biological knowledge"*1963 - J.E. Lousley...

in 1983.

Selected books

• Flowers of the Mediterranean (Chatto & Windus, 1967)
• Flowers of Europe: a field guide (Oxford University Press, 1969)
• A Concise Flowers of Europe (Oxford University Press, 1972)
• Flowers of South West Europe (Oxford University Press, 1973, ISBN 0-192-17625-0)
• Trees and Bushes of Europe (Oxford University Press, 1976)
• Flowers of Greece and the Balkans (Oxford University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-192-17626-9)
• Flowers of the Himalaya (Oxford University Press, 1985)
• A Guide to the Vegetation of Britain and Europe (Oxford University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-192-17713-3)
• Concise Flowers of the Himalaya (Oxford University Press, 1987)
• Collins Photoguide to Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe (Collins, 1988, ISBN 0-002-19709-X)