Wessel Marais B.Sc., M.Sc. (1929-2013) was a South African botanist and plant collector. Wessel was born in

Colesberg Colesberg is a town with 17,354 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, located on the main N1 road from Cape Town to Johannesburg. In a sheep-farming area spread over half-a-million hectares, greater Colesberg breeds many ...

, Northern Cape Province, on 28 December 1929, the youngest of the ten children of Barend Pieter Marais, the last blacksmith and wagon builder of Colesberg, who was of French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

descent. He studied at

Pretoria University The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 ...

(1947-1951) where he obtained an M.Sc. in Botany for the thesis 'A Morphological study of an indigenous species of rice, ''Oryza barthii'' A. Chev.'. He then (1952) joined the National Herbarium (PRE) where he undertook fieldwork during an internship in

Kruger National Park Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends from north to south and from ea ...

and in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. From 1953 to 1955 he was director of the Albany Museum Herbarium (GRA) in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

, where he studied South African

Cruciferae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...

for the Flora of Southern Africa. He carried out collecting trips to the Southwestern Cape Province,

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

, the

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...

Pondoland Pondoland or Mpondoland (Xhosa: ''EmaMpondweni''), is a natural region on the South African shores of the Indian Ocean. It is located in the coastal belt of the Eastern Cape province. Its territory is the former Mpondo Kingdom of the Mpondo peop ...

Griqualand East Griqualand East (Afrikaans: ''Griekwaland-Oos''), officially known as New Griqualand ( Dutch: ''Nieuw Griqualand''), was one of four short-lived Griqua states in Southern Africa from the early 1860s until the late 1870s and was located between ...

and other localities. He collected over 1,500 specimens jointly with Van der Schijff in the Kruger National Park and with

Bernard de Winter Bernard de Winter (31 July 1924 - 8 May 2017 Pretoria) was a South African botanist who from 1973 was Director of the Botanical Research Institute, which later became the National Botanical Institute and then the South African National Biodivers ...

in northern S.W. Africa. Gastonia mauritiana - Pamplemousses 5

He was the South African Liaison Officer at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

(1957-1965). He then worked in the nursery trade before joining the permanent staff at the

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 ...

, Kew, in 1968, initially as Senior Scientific Officer and later Principal Scientific Officer. In 1970 he became Curator of

Petaloid Monocots Lilioid monocots (lilioids, liliid monocots, petaloid monocots, petaloid lilioid monocots) is an informal name used for a grade (biology), grade (grouping of taxa with common characteristics) of five monocot order (biology), orders (Petrosavial ...

. At Kew he contributed to and edited the Flore des Mascareignes; he wrote the account for ''Tulipa'' for the Flora of Turkey and ''Romulaea'' for

Flora Europaea The ''Flora Europaea'' is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify ...

. He collected in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

. One of his more unusual contributions was the identification of ''

Pilea peperomioides ''Pilea peperomioides'' (), the Chinese money plant, UFO plant, pancake plant or missionary plant, is a species of flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in southern China. History The Scottish ...

'', the 'Chinese Money Plant', and he kept a plant on the window sill of his office. He took early retirement from Kew in 1986 because of

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

. He lived in Lasvaux, Cazillac in France where he died, 27 January 2013, in a care home in

Martel, Lot Martel is a commune in the Lot department in southwestern France. It is a small medieval town in a region well known for its walnuts and truffles. History The name of the town means "hammer", and three of these are to be seen on the town's coa ...

. ''

Crotalaria ''Crotalaria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae (subfamily Faboideae) commonly known as rattlepods. The genus includes over 700 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Africa is the continent with the majority of ''Crotalari ...

damarensis'' Engl. var. ''maraisiana'' Torre, '' Heliophila maraisiana'' Al-Shehbaz & Mummenhoff, and ''

Polyscias maraisiana ''Polyscias maraisiana'' is a species of plant in the family Araliaceae, formerly named ''Gastonia mauritiana''. It is endemic to Mauritius, where it was formerly common on forest verges and also in coastal areas. It was formerly grown as an orn ...

'' Lowry & G.M.Plunkett were named after him.

Selected publications

* The Proposed flora of Southern Africa. (1958). Marais, Wessel. ''Memorias da Sociedade Broteriana. Coimbra'' 13:51-52. * Notes on South African Cruciferae. Marais, W. (1966). Bothalia 9:97-112 * New and interesting records of African plants: Cruciferae: a new combination in Silicularia. (1969). Marais, Wessel. ''Bothalia'', 10:70. * Cruciferae. In L.E. Codd, B.D. Winter, D.J.B. Killick & H.B. Rycroft (Editors). (1970). Flora of Southern Africa 13:1-118 * Taxonomic Notes on Romulea (Iridaceae) from the Mediterranean Region. (1975). Kew Bulletin, 30(4), 707-708. * A New Mascarene Sesuvium (Aizoaceae). Marais, W. (1978). Kew Bulletin, 32(2), 483-483. * A New Combination in Nesogenes (Dicrastylidaceae). Marais, W. (1979). Kew Bulletin, 33(3), 420-420. * Savannosiphon gen. nov., a segregate of Lapeirousia (Iridaceae - ixioideae). (1979). Goldblatt, Peter; Marais, Wessel. ''Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden'' 66:845-850 * Notes on Tulipa (Liliaceae). Marais, W. (1980). Kew Bulletin, 35(2), 257–259. * A New Species of Pleurostylia (Celastraceae) from Rodrigues. Marais, W. (1981). Kew Bulletin, 36(2), 229–230. * Notes on Mascarene Araliaceae. Marais, W. (1984). Kew Bulletin 39: 809-816 * Notes on Aristea (Iridaceae) in East Africa. Marais, W. (1987). Kew Bulletin, 42(4), 932-932.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marais, Wessel 1929 births University of Pretoria alumni 20th-century South African botanists Botanists active in Kew Gardens 2013 deaths