Chaya Clara Heyn (; June 13, 1924 – December 27, 1998) was an Israeli

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and professor at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

, also working in the university's herbarium. She has cataloged and identified many plants, and three

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

are named in her honor.

Biography and education

Clara Blau was born in 1924 in Cluj, Transylvania, Romania. Her father, Paul-Pinchas (1889–1948), was a journalist and a businessman and had a doctorate in international relations. Her mother, Sima (née Grünfeld, 1895–1990) was a housewife. Her brother is

Joshua Blau Yehoshua Blau, also spelled Joshua ( he, יהושע בלאו, vertical-align=sup; 22 September 1919 – 20 October 2020) was an Israeli scholar of Arabic language and literature, previously Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusa ...

. In 1931, the family emigrated to

Baden, Austria Baden (German for " Baths"; Central Bavarian: ''Bodn''), unofficially distinguished from other Badens as Baden bei Wien (Baden near Vienna), is a spa town in Austria. It serves as the capital of Baden District in the state of Lower Austria. Loc ...

, staying there until 1937, when they moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

the family used their Romanian passports to leave Austria on June 8, 1938, and moved to Italy, while waiting to receive immigration certificates to emigrate to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

. After one month in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

the documents arrived, and they moved to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. Clara studied at the teachers seminary and worked for seven years as an elementary school teacher. In 1945 she started studying biology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, after being inspired by hearing a lecture on the topic from

Yeshayahu Leibowitz Yeshayahu Leibowitz ( he, ישעיהו ליבוביץ; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew ...

.Heyn, Chaia Clara (1924-1998)

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

In 1946 she married Zalman Heyn, who was a poet and a songwriter, as well as the first spokesman and head of public relations at the Ministry of Labor. They had two children. During the War of Independence, she had to stop her studies and participated in the

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...

activities and later served also in the

Israel Defence Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...

. After the war, she competed her M.Sc. in botany (cytotaxonomy) in 1954 under the supervision of Naomi Feinbrun. During her studies, Heyn also taught at the

Hebrew University Secondary School Hebrew University High School ( he, התיכון ליד האוניברסיטה), commonly known as ''Leyada'' (literally "next to"), is a semi-private high school in West Jerusalem, established in 1935 by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The s ...

from 1950 to 1953. Heyn continued to study for a doctorate, which she completed in 1960. Her dissertation was on the “Monographic revision of annual species of Medicago L. in the sections Spirocarpos Ser. and Orbiculares Urb.” under the supervision of Naomi Feinburn and

Michael Zohary Michael Zohary ( he, מיכאל זהרי) (born 9 April 1898 in Bóbrka, Galicia (Austria-Hungary); died 16 April 1983 in Israel) was a pioneering Israeli botanist. Biography Michael Schein (later Zohary) was born into a Jewish family in Bóbrka ...

. She than published a book based on that dissertation.

Scientific career

Her research focused on the family

Leguminosae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

, and especially the genus

Medicago ''Medicago'' is a genus of flowering plants, commonly known as medick or burclover, in the legume family (Fabaceae). It contains at least 87 species and is distributed mainly around the Mediterranean basin. The best-known member of the genus is ...

. In addition to Medicago, some of the genera she studied in depth were Trigonella, Lotus, Onobrychys, Lupinus, Prangos, Heptaptera and Calendula. In 1962, she became part of the department of botany in the Hebrew University In Jerusalem and in 1978 finally received the rank of a full professor. Between 1969 and 1997 she managed the university's

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

. and was instrumental in computerization of the herbarium's collections, starting from 1980. From 1993 to 1998 Heyn was the head of the committee of Naming Israeli

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

of the

Academy of the Hebrew Language The Academy of the Hebrew Language ( he, הָאָקָדֶמְיָה לַלָּשׁוֹן הָעִבְרִית, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on t ...

, dedicated to determining Hebrew names to many of the local flora. Heyn was one of the founders of the Organisation for the Taxonomic Investigation of the Mediterranean Area (OPTIMA) in 1974, and served on its board and executive council until 1993. She received the OPTIMA gold medal in 1995. Heyn's research included the systematics and evolution of plants, moving into

pollination Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds ...

biology by the 1980s. Later in life, she studied the

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es of Israel, in collaboration with Dr. Ilana Herrnstadt. Her last book ''Bryophyte Flora of Israel'' was published posthumously in 2004 (with Ilana Herrnstadt, Hélène Bischler and Suzanne Jovet-Ast). Heyn died from cancer on December 27, 1998. Three taxa are named after her: ''Medicago'' sect. ''Heynianae'' Greuter; ''Medicago heynianae'' Greuter; and ''Prangus'' subg. ''Heynia'' Pimenov & V. H. Tikhom.* Ilana Hermstadt & Daniel Zohary
C. Clara Heyn (1924-1998)
Flora Mediterranea 9 - 1999

Books

* Chaia Clara Heyn, The annual species of Medicago, Magnes Press, 1963 * M. Zohary, C.C. Heyn, D. Heller, Conspectus florae orientalis : an annotated catalogue of the flora of the Middle East,

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on re ...

, 1980-1994 * C. Clara Heyn and Ilana Herrnstadt, editors, The Bryophyte flora of Israel and adjacent regions, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2004 * Heyn also wrote botany articles of the

Encyclopaedia Hebraica The ''Encyclopaedia Hebraica'' ( he, האנציקלופדיה העברית) is a comprehensive encyclopedia in the Hebrew language that was published in the latter half of the 20th century.ha-Entsiklopediyah ha-ʻivrit (האנציקלופדיה ...

References

External links

list of publications by Clara Heyn
* A. M. Mayer
C. Clara Heyn 1924–1998: In Memoriam
Israel Journal of Plant Sciences, Volume 47, 1999 - Issue 2
Heyn, Chaia Clara (1924-1998)

* Ilana Hermstadt & Daniel Zohary
C. Clara Heyn (1924-1998)
Flora Mediterranea 9 - 1999 * Nir L. Gil-ad and Ilana Herrnstadt
C. Clara Heyn (1924-1998)
Taxon Vol. 48, No. 2 (May, 1999), pp. 427–430 {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyn, Clara Israeli botanists Israeli women scientists Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1924 births 1998 deaths Romanian emigrants to Austria Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to Mandatory Palestine Burials at Har HaMenuchot