Alma Theodora Lee (née Melvaine; born 12 April 1912, Tingha, died 20 October 1990,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

) was an Australian botanist and

plant taxonomist Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

who worked at the

National Herbarium of New South Wales The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,Thiers, B. ...

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

, and CSIRO. She is notable for raising the standard of systematic botany in Australia, and for her revisions of '' Swainsona'' and '' Typha''. She also studied the '' Fabaceae'' with colleagues. She described over 40 species. The March 1991 issue of the journal '' Telopea'' was dedicated to her memory.

References

1912 births 1990 deaths Australian women scientists 20th-century Australian botanists Women botanists 20th-century women scientists People from New England (New South Wales) University of Sydney people CSIRO people 20th-century Australian women {{Australia-botanist-stub