Gwendoline Joyce Lewis (1909–1967) was a South African

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Life

She graduated from the University of Cape Town, with a PhD. She was active in the description and classification of

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of the

Iridaceae Iridaceae () is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the Iris (plant), irises. It has a nearly global distribution, with 69 accepted genera with a total of about 2500 species. It includes a number of economically importan ...

. She was an accomplished plant collector and added over 8000 plant specimens to herbaria. She was botanist at the Bolus

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, 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 sh ...

of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

for 2 years and then was appointed curator of the South African Museum Herbarium. In 1956 this herbarium and its staff moved to

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Kirstenbosch is a botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South African Natio ...

. Lewis was appointed a Research Officer with the National Botanical Gardens. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa. She died in Cape Town on 11 April 1967. The following plants were named after her: '' Geissorhiza lewisiae'' Forester; '' Muraltia lewisiae'' Levyns; ''Psilocaulon lewisiae'' Lbol and '' Thamnochortus lewisiae'' Pillans.

Works

Books

* Gwendoline J. Lewis, A. Amalia Obermeyer, T. T. Barnard (1972). ''Gladiolus: A Revision of the South African Species.'' Purnell. 316 pp. colour illustrations by Gwendoline Joyce Lewis. (published posthumously) * Gwendoline J. Lewis. 1954. ''Some Aspects of the Morphology, Phylogeny and Taxonomy of the South African Iridaceae''. Volume 40, Splits 2 of Annals. Edition reimpresa of Ann. of the South African Museum, 99 pp.

References

Sources

* Brummitt, RK; CE Powell. 1992. ''Authors of Plant Names.'' Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Gwendoline Joyce Botanists with author abbreviations 20th-century South African botanists South African women botanists 1967 deaths 1909 births Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa 20th-century South African women scientists