Helena M. L. Forbes (11 September 1900 – 5 September 1959) was a Scottish botanist, plant collector and curator who worked primarily on South African flora.

Biography

Helena Madelain Lamond Forbes was born on 11 September 1900 in

Forfar Forfar (; , ) is the county town of Angus, Scotland, and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million-pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town had a population of 16,280. The town ...

, Scotland. When she was a young child, her parents emigrated to

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

and Forbes childhood was spent there. On 1 July 1919, she joined Natal Herbarium in Durban as a Junior Assistant in the Botany Division. She became responsible for herbarium maintenance and plant identification. From 1936–37, she worked 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 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

as the South African Liaison Officer. She subsequently returned to South Africa, where she joined the National Herbarium in Pretoria in 1938. In 1940 she returned to Natal Herbarium as Curator and stayed in post until her retirement on 10 September 1955. At her retirement she was described as "a stalwart that kept botanical wheels turning at the herbarium". She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and died on 5 September 1959.

Research

Forbes was recognised as an authority on the flora of the Natal and, whilst she did not publish widely, she did contribute major revisions of two genera: ''

Psoralea ''Psoralea'' is a genus in the legume family (Fabaceae) with 111 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs native to southern and eastern Africa, ranging from Kenya to South Africa. In South Africa they are commonly referred to as fountainbush (English ...

'' and ''

Tephrosia ''Tephrosia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It is widespread in both the Eastern and Western Hemisphere, where it is found in tropical and warm-temperate regions. The generic name is derived from the Greek word τεφ ...

.'' Work on ''Psoralea'' had begun as early in her career as 1923 and in 1934 she began her work on ''Tephrosia''. During her lifetime she published thirty-two plant names, some of which include: the taxon '' Ophrestia;'' ''

Kalanchoe ''Kalanchoe'' ( ), (also called "kalanchöe" or "kalanchoë"), is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent plants in the stonecrop family Crassulaceae, mainly native to Madagascar and tropical Africa. A ''Kalanchoe'' species was one ...

'' ''albiflora''. During her time at the Natal Herbarium she contributed 1400 specimens to the collection, most of which were from the region. Early in her career she worked on the genus '' Cassia'', as well as flora from

Isipingo Isipingo is a town situated south of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and currently forms part of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The town is named after the Siphingo River, which in turn is thought to be named (in the Zulu language) ...

Eponym

The Indian Ocean

alga Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, suc ...

'' Beckerella helenae'' is named after Forbes.

Selected publications

* 'The Genus Psoralea Linn.' in ''Bothalia'' (1936). *'A further record of the genus azalea in South Africa. A. Alata (sim) h. Forbes.' ''South African Journal of Science'' (1939).Forbes, H. L. "A further record of the genus azalea in South Africa. A. Alata (sim) h. Forbes." ''South African Journal of Science'' 36.12 (1939): 315.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Helena 1900 births 1959 deaths People from Forfar 20th-century South African botanists South African women botanists 20th-century Scottish botanists Scottish women botanists 20th-century South African women scientists Botanists active in Kew Gardens British emigrants to the Colony of Natal 20th-century Scottish women scientists