Reino Pott ''née'' Leendertz (2 January 1869 – 14 June 1965) was a Dutch-born South African botanist and chemist. She was the first woman to be appointed as a botanist in the civil service of the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

, and greatly expanded the plant collection of the

Transvaal Museum The Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, formerly the Transvaal Museum, is a natural history museum situated in Pretoria, South Africa. It is located on Paul Kruger Street, between Visagie and Minnaar Streets, opposite the Pretoria City ...

. She later co-authored a list of over 3,000 species of flowering plants and ferns with

Joseph Burtt Davy Joseph Burtt Davy (7 March 1870 Findern, Derbyshire – 20 August 1940 Birmingham) was a Quaker botanist and agrostologist. He was the first curator of the Forest Herbarium (FHO) at the Imperial Forestry Institute when it was founded in 1924 u ...

in 1912, expanding it to over 4,000 in 1920.

Biography

Academics

Pott first studied as a pharmacist, but would go on to study botany in Amsterdam under

Hugo de Vries Hugo Marie de Vries (; 16 February 1848 – 21 May 1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of ...

. By 1898, she had completed her studies and traveled to

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

Career in South Africa

In the same year she arrived in Pretoria, 1898, Pott was appointed to the post of botanical assistant at the

, then called the ''Staatsmuseum'', as the first exception to the established rule at the time of employing only men as scientists in the South African Republic. From then on, she worked to establish a representative sample of the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

flora in the Museum. This work included an expansion of plant specimens that numbered more than 23,000 by the end of her retirement. Pott returned to the Netherlands during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

and taught natural history at a girls' high school, but would re-apply for work at the Transvaal Museum and return to the South African Republic on 1 January 1904. Pott became a member of the

South African Association for the Advancement of Science South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

in 1906, and would present a draft of a list of the Transvaal and

Swaziland Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where ...

regions'

vascular plants Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified tissue ( ...

to the Association in 1908, in collaboration with

. This list would be finalized in 1912, with Pott listed as a co-author; her addendum published in 1920 would list her as the sole author. Pott discovered several new species of flowering plant throughout her career, including several succulents in the genus ''

Stapelia ''Stapelia'' is a genus of low-growing, spineless, stem succulent plants, predominantly from South Africa with a few from other parts of Africa. Several Asian and Latin American species were formerly included but they have all now been transfer ...

''. Among these were ''Stapelia leendertziae'', or "Black Bells", which was named in her honor by N. E. Brown, and ''Stapelia gettleffii'', which she discovered in 1913., 1913. ''Annals of the Transvaal Museum''. Pretoria 3: 226. She retired in 1925.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pott, Reino 20th-century South African botanists South African women botanists 20th-century South African women scientists Cape Colony botanists Cape Colony women scientists 1869 births 1965 deaths