Maria Sergeevna Vorontsova (russian: Мария Сергеевна Воронцова; born 1979) is a
Russian-born botanist, specializing in the
taxonomy of
Poaceae
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...
(grasses). She was responsible for authoring the
taxon for
Solanum agnewiorum
''Solanum agnewiorum'' is a species of '' Solanum''. The species is andromonoecious. It is native to Kenya and occurs in 4 locations.
''Solanum agnewiorum'' is currently listed as endangered by the IUCN
The International Union for Conservat ...
and
Solanum umtuma
''Solanum umtuma'' is a species of plant in the Solanaceae family.
The species is related to tomatoes. The species is andromonoecous.
It can be found in South Africa in areas like Cape Province and KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also re ...
. She is a member of the Accelerated Taxonomy department at
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She is one of the co-authors and maintainers of
GrassBase, and is an editor of the journal, ''
Phytotaxa''.
In 2010, she identified a new species of Africa spiny
aubergine, ''
Solanum ruvu
''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...
'', which had been collected only once in the wild ten years earlier. A subsequent expedition failed to locate it, and it is now believed to be extinct due to
deforestation.
Publications
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References
External links
•
Biography on Kew Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vorontsova, Maria S.
1979 births
21st-century Russian botanists
21st-century Russian women scientists
Living people
Russian women botanists
Botanists active in Kew Gardens