Russian-French botanist. Valentine Allorge (known familiarly as Valia) was a member of the Botanical Society of France from 1918 and earned her Doctor of Science degree in Paris. She was born Valentine Selitsky in Jouravlevska, Russia, and grew up in Kharkov, but travelled to Switzerland for her university studies, remaining in Europe from then on. After graduating from the University of Lausanne, she moved to Paris to prepare her thesis on plant anatomy, working thereafter for several years with Émile Perrot in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Paris. In particular she helped with his illustrated work Plantes Médicinales de France.

Allorge was married to fellow botanist C.L. Gatin, but lost him during the First World War and in 1920 married the cryptogamist Pierre Allorge. Pierre and Valia undertook many collecting expeditions in Europe and to former French colonies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, and published joint works. Valia Allorge's solo publications largely dealt with the flora of the Pyrenees region.

Allorge's most important work was on the bryoflora of the Bussaco forest, Portugal, and she also spent several years cataloguing the bryophytes of Spain. After Pierre Allorge's death in 1944 she took over direction of the Revue Bryologique et Lichénologique. She died after a minor accident, aged nearly 90.

Sources:
J.H. Barnhart, 1965, Biographical Notes Upon Botanists, 1: 43
S. Jovet-Ast (trans M Hurault), 1978, The Bryologist, 81(3): 488-489.