Rob Lucas lectured in horticulture at The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand until his retirement in 2006. He has been photographing plants for several decades, and his photographs have been widely published. He is the author of Managing Pests and Diseases: A handbook for New Zealand gardeners and co-author (with Isobel Gabites) of The Native Garden: Design themes from wild New Zealand. He lives in Wellington.

John Dawson and Rob Lucas are co-authors of the award-winning Nature Guide to the New Zealand Forest (2000), Lifestyles of New Zealand Forest Plants (1993), Lifestyles of New Zealand Coast and Mountain Plants (1996) and the Nature of Plants: Habitats, challenges and adaptations (2005).