Inez Clare Verdoorn (15 June 1896 – 2 April 1989) was a South African

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 taxonomist, noted for her major revisions of plant families and genera. She is also a niece of Eugene Nielen Marais, lawyer, naturalist, poet and writer. She matriculated in 1916 from Loreto Convent School in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, worked for a while in the office of the Controller and Auditor General before being appointed in 1917 as a

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 ...

assistant at the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology. Between 1925 and 1927 she worked at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

as liaison officer for the National Herbarium. On her return to Pretoria, she assumed charge of the herbarium and was promoted to Senior Professional Officer in 1944. Despite having arrived at retirement age in 1951, Verdoorn opted to work on as a temporary staff member until 1968, and thereafter as an unpaid research worker. She has more than 200 botanical publications to her credit, including major revisions, appearing mainly in ''Bothalia'', ''Flowering Plants of Africa'', ''Flora of Southern Africa'', ''Kew Bulletin'', and the ''Journal of South African Botany''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation I.Verd. when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Intern ...

Honours and fellowships

*1952 Senior Capt. Scott Medal by the SA Biological Society *1957 President of the SA Biological Society *1964 President of Section B of the SA Association for the Advancement of Science *1967 PhD (honorary) from the University of Natal She is commemorated by the

Composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

genus '' Inezia'' Phill., ''Aloe verdoorniae''

Reynolds Reynolds may refer to: Places Australia *Hundred of Reynolds, a cadastral unit in South Australia *Hundred of Reynolds (Northern Territory), a cadastral unit in the Northern Territory of Australia United States * Reynolds, Mendocino County, Calif ...

, ''Senecio verdoorniae'' R.A.Dyer, ''Teclea verdoorniae'' Exell & Mendonça and Volume 28 of the ''

Flowering Plants of Africa ''Flowering Plants of Africa'' is a series of illustrated botanical magazines akin to ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'', initiated as ''Flowering Plants of South Africa'' by I. B. Pole-Evans in 1920. It is now published by the South African Nati ...

'', which was specially dedicated to her. Her collected specimens total some 4 000, many collected with

Leslie Edward Wostall Codd Leslie Edward Wostall Codd (16 September 1908 in Vants Drift, Dundee, District, Natal – 2 March 1999 in Pretoria), was a South African plant taxonomist. Life Codd was born in 1908. He attended the Natal University College where he obtained an ...

Robert Allen Dyer Robert Allen Dyer (21 September 1900 Pietermaritzburg – 26 October 1987 Johannesburg) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, working particularly on Amaryllidaceae and succulent plants, contributing to and editing of ''Bothalia'' and ''F ...

, Anna Amelia Obermeyer and

Herold Georg Wilhelm Johannes Schweickerdt Herold Georg Wilhelm Johannes Schweickerdt (28 February 1903, Schmie, Baden-Württemberg – 21 February 1977, Pretoria) was a German botanist. In 1904 he moved with his parents to Pretoria, where he later studied at Transvaal University. From ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verdoorn, Inez Clare Botanists with author abbreviations 20th-century South African botanists South African women botanists South African taxonomists Women taxonomists Scientists from Pretoria Afrikaner people 1896 births 1989 deaths South African people of Dutch descent 20th-century South African women scientists