Almut Gitter Jones (8 September 192312 October 2013) was a German-American botanist, mycologist, 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 ...

known for her work researching the genus ''

Aster Aster or ASTER may refer to: Biology * ''Aster'' (genus), a genus of flowering plants ** List of ''Aster'' synonyms, other genera formerly included in ''Aster'' and still called asters in English * Aster (cell biology), a cellular structure shap ...

'', as well as for her work as curator of the herbarium at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. Jones was born Almut Gitter in

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

to Alfred and Emma ( Eickhorst) Gitter. She married fellow botanist George Neville Jones in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the 38th-most populous municipality in Illinois. It ...

in 1958. She died in

. She described over fifty species, and the genus '' Almutaster'' of the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

was named for her in 1982. 2019

References

1923 births 2013 deaths American women botanists 20th-century American botanists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American botanists 21st-century American women scientists University of Illinois alumni University of Illinois faculty People from Oldenburg (city) German emigrants to the United States American women academics {{US-botanist-stub