He was a linguist, able to understand Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

After a tour of South America and Europe following his mother's death in 1903, Black focused on systematic botany.

It was indispensable to botanists and to those concerned with the vegetation of the arid regions of contiguous States.

[1] J.M.Black received the following distinctions for his botanical work:- 1927, Honorary Lecturer in Systematic Botany at the University of Adelaide; 1930, Associate honoris causa of the Linnean Society of London; 1930, Verco Medal of the Royal Society of South Australia; 1932 Mueller Medal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science;[2] 1933–34, President of the Royal Society of South Australia; in 1942, the M.B.E.

; 1945, Australian Natural History Medallion (Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria);[3] and in 1946 the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales.