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Olive Mary Hilliard

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South African botanist (1925–2022)

Olive Mary Hilliard Burtt
BornOlive Mary Hillary
(1925-07-04) 4 July 1925 (age 99)
Durban, South Africa
Died30 November 2022(2022-11-30) (aged 97)
Alma materUniversity of Natal
OccupationBotanist
SpouseB. L. Burtt
Awards
  • Kirstenbosch Jubilee Prize (1983)
  • Gold Medal of the South African Association of Botanists (1984)
  • D.Sc. (honoris causa), University of Natal (1991)
  • Veitch Memorial Gold Medal, Royal Horticultural Society (1992)
Scientific career
InstitutionsRoyal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Thesis "A taxonomic revision of Streptocarpus subgenus Streptocarpus in Natal."  (1965)

Olive Mary Hilliard (née Hillary, 4 July 1925 – 30 November 2022) was a South African botanist and taxonomist. Hilliard authored 372 land plant species names, the fifth-highest number of such names authored by any female scientist.

Hilliard was born in Durban on 4 July 1925. She attended Natal University from 1943 to 1947, where she obtained an MSc and later a PhD. She worked at the National Herbarium in Pretoria in 1947-48 and was a lecturer in botany at Natal University from 1954 to 1962. In 1963 she became curator of the herbarium at Natal University and a research fellow. Her special fields of interest were the flora of Natal and the taxonomy of Streptocarpus, Compositae and Scrophulariaceae.

In 1964 she formed a professional and personal collaboration with Brian Laurence Burtt (1913-2008) who played a large part in the revitalising of a moribund Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Their collaboration resulted in numerous papers and three books, Streptocarpus: an African Plant Study (1971), The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg (1987), and Dierama: The Hairbells of Africa (1991).

Hilliard died on 30 November 2022, at the age of 97.

Legacy

Hilliard collected specimens, mostly from the Natal Drakensberg and Malawi, number some 8000 (of which 5000 were collected with B. L. Burtt). She is commemorated in the 2 genera of Hilliardia and Hilliardiella (both in the Asteraceae family). She is also honoured in Plectranthus hilliardiae Codd, Schizoglossum hilliardiae Kupicha, Cymbopappus hilliardiae B.Nord., Agalmyla hilliardiae D.J.Middleton & S.M.Scott and Helichrysum hilliardiae Wild.

The standard author abbreviation Hilliard is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Works

  • Hilliard, OM, BL Burtt 1971. Streptocarpus: an African Plant Study
  • Hilliard, OM. 1983. Flora of Southern Africa Series. Ed. Balogh Scientific Books. 325 pp. ISBN 0-621-07943-X
  • Hilliard, OM, BL Burtt 1985. A Revision of Geranium in Africa south of the Limpopo. (Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Vol. XLII no. 2)
  • Hilliard, OM. 1987. The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg (Annals of Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens) Ed. National Botanic Gardens. 253 pp. ISBN 0-620-10625-5
  • Hilliard, OM, BL Burtt 1991. Dierama: The Hairbells of Africa. Ed. Timber Press, Inc. 152 pp. ISBN 1-874802-01-7
  • Hilliard, OM. 1995. The Manuleae: A Tribe of Scrophulariaceae. Ed. Edinburgh University Press. 600 pp. ISBN 0-7486-0489-8
  • Hilliard, OM, LS Davis (illustrator). 1997. Trees & Shrubs of Natal (Ukhahlamba). Ed. Univ. of Kwazulu Natal Press; 2ª ed. 48 pp. ISBN 0-86980-882-6
  • Hilliard, OM. 1997. Flowers of the Natal Drakensberg: The Lily, Iris And Orchid Family And Their Allies (Ukhahlamba S.) Ed. Univ. of Kwazulu Natal Press. 85 pp. ISBN 0-86980-702-1

References

  1. Lindon, Heather L.; Gardiner, Lauren M.; Brady, Abigail; Vorontsova, Maria S. (5 May 2015). "Fewer than three percent of land plant species named by women: Author gender over 260 years". Taxon. 64 (2): 209–215. doi:10.12705/642.4.
  2. Mary Gunn; L. E. W. Codd (June 1981). Botanical Exploration Southern Africa. Taylor & Francis. p. 188. ISBN 9780869611296. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  3. "Botanical Electronic News - 396". www.ou.edu. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  4. "B. L. Burtt: Plant taxonomist". The Independent. 13 June 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  5. "Hilliard, Olive Mary". Harvard University. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  6. "Olive Mary Hilliard". Bionomia. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  7. "Olive Hilliard obituary". The Guardian. 15 January 2023. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  8. Noltie, Henry (16 February 2023). "Professor Olive Mary Hilliard Burtt (1925–2022)". Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 80: 1–12. doi:10.24823/ejb.2023.1983.
  9. Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. S2CID 187926901. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  10. International Plant Names Index.  Hilliard.
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