Miriam Phoebe de Vos (26 November 1912

Zastron Zastron is a small agricultural town in the Free State province of South Africa, some 30 km from the border of Lesotho. It is situated at the foot of Aasvoëlberg (Vulture Mountain), named for the rare Cape vultures attracted by a feeding p ...

– 2005

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

) was a leading South African botanist and academic. She was an expert on bulbous plants, especially ''

Romulea ''Romulea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1772. It is distributed in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa.Moraea ''Moraea'', the Cape tulips, is a genus of plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1758. The group is widespread across Africa, the Mediterranean, and central and southwestern Asia. The genus name is a tribute to the English ...

'' and ''

Clivia ''Clivia'' is a genus of monocot flowering plants native to southern Africa. They are from the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Common names are Natal lily or bush lily. They are herbaceous or evergreen perennial plants, with g ...

''.

Career

She studied at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

and obtained her BSc (''cum laude'') and MSc (''cum laude''). She held a junior lecture position from 1939 at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

She obtained a DSc in Botany in 1940 from Stellenbosch University with the thesis ''"A cytological study on South African genera of the Aizoaceae and the Proteacea".'' In 1941 she joined the Botany Department of the

Cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...

embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and

biosystematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the Correlation and dependence, relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: c ...

were the subjects she lectured in. Her main areas of interest included cytotaxonomy and

, especially of Iridaceae. Cliviaminiata2

The cytology of the Proteaceae and the Aizoaceae as well as the embryology of several genera were her first research contributions, followed by the taxonomy of Iridaceae. In 1972 the Journal of South African Botany published her morphology and taxonomy of the genus

Romulea ''Romulea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1772. It is distributed in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa.Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

Awards

*Queen Victoria Stipendium (1935) *Carnegie bursary (1959) * Havenga prize for Biology (1974)

Eponyms

*The genus '' Devia'' in the Iridaceae was named in her honour by the South African botanists

Peter Goldblatt Peter Goldblatt (born 1943) is a South African botanist, working principally in the United States. Life Goldblatt was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 8, 1943. His undergraduate studies (B.Sc.) were undertaken at the University ...

and

John Charles Manning John Charles Manning (born 1962) is a South African botanist based in the Compton Herbarium, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch, South Africa. References External sources 20th-century South African botanists ...

in 1990. *In 1975 de Vos published the genus ''Duthiastrum'' in the Iridacea in the South African Biographical Dictionary in honour of Augusta Vera Duthie. *In 1988 she published ''Ixia frederickii'' in the South African Biographical Dictionary in honour of Frederick W. Duckitt.

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

External links

Author Details for "Miriam Phoebe de Vos"
from

IPNI The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It incl ...

Devia: for Dr. Miriam Phoebe de Vos (1912- ), botany professor at Stellenbosch University
from "calflora.net" * * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Vos, Miriam Phoebe 1912 births 2005 deaths 20th-century South African women scientists 20th-century South African botanists South African women botanists