Olive Mary Hilliard facts for kids
Olive Mary Hilliard (born on July 4, 1925) is a famous South African botanist and taxonomist. A botanist studies plants, and a taxonomist names and classifies them. Olive Hilliard has named 372 different types of land plants, which is one of the highest numbers for any female scientist!
Olive was born in Durban, South Africa. She went to Natal University from 1943 to 1947. There, she earned her Master of Science (MSc) and later her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees. These are advanced degrees that show she studied a lot about science.
After university, she worked at the National Herbarium in Pretoria in 1947 and 1948. A herbarium is like a library for dried plant specimens. From 1954 to 1962, she taught botany at Natal University. In 1963, she became the curator of the herbarium at Natal University. This meant she was in charge of the plant collection. She also became a research fellow, which means she did important research.
Olive Hilliard was especially interested in the plants of Natal, a region in South Africa. She also focused on classifying specific plant groups like Streptocarpus (often called Cape Primroses), Asteraceae (the daisy family), and Scrophulariaceae (the figwort family).
In 1964, she started working closely with Brian Laurence Burtt, another botanist. They worked together on many projects and became good friends. Brian Burtt helped make the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh famous again. Together, Olive and Brian wrote many scientific papers and three important books:
- Streptocarpus: an African Plant Study (published in 1971)
- The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg (published in 1987)
- Dierama: The Hairbells of Africa (published in 1991)
How Olive Hilliard is Remembered
Olive Hilliard collected many plant samples, mostly from the Natal Drakensberg mountains and Malawi. She collected about 8,000 specimens in total! About 5,000 of these were collected with Brian L. Burtt.
To honor her amazing work, two groups of plants were named after her: Hilliardia and Hilliardiella. Both of these plant groups belong to the Asteraceae (daisy) family. Many individual plant species have also been named after her, including:
- Plectranthus hilliardiae
- Schizoglossum hilliardiae
- Cymbopappus hilliardiae
- Agalmyla hilliardiae
- Helichrysum hilliardiae
See also
In Spanish: Olive Mary Hilliard para niños
