Argentine botanist. Maevia Correa was born in Buenos Aires and married at a young age, having two sons before beginning her studies at the University of La Plata. Initially her aim was to become a geologist, but she was soon drawn towards the biological sciences and especially botany. Later she began a thesis on the family Portulacaceae but soon decided to change this and focus on the Orchidaceae, which would become a life long passion. In 1953 she received her doctorate and became involved with the National Ministry of Agriculture (MAG.), attending meetings at the Botanical Laboratories in which regional floristic projects were organised. It was here that she met a fellow botanist Osvaldo Boelcke and Correa soon married for the second time.
In 1956 she began to work for the MAG. and later transferred to Castelar when the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) was created there. At this time she was involved in the taxonomic research of plants in arid Patagonia and was put in charge of researching, directing and editing the Flora Patagónica. This work would consume the next 30 years of her life and resulted in the publication of an 8 volume work between 1969 and 1999. The project involved extensive fieldwork in a range of conditions and remote areas, but she still found the time to undertake some important administrative posts as well. These included the vice-presidency (1973-1975) and presidency (1975) of the Argentine Society of Botany, activity on the organisational committee for the Flora of Chile and directorship of the herbarium of the INTA in Castelar (BAB) between 1958 and 1983.
On completion of the Flora Patagónica project Correa was awarded prizes from both the Argentine Society of Botany and the National Agronomic and Veterinarian Academy. There were also many additional projects that came from it, including a botanical transect of austral Patagonia in 1985 and later a publication on the bioactive agents from dry-land plants of Latin-America (1993-1998). Throughout all of this Correa still found time to study her beloved orchids, receiving numerous grants from institutions in Argentina, France and the U.K. to aid her research. One of the products of this was her "Chloraea, Género Sudamericano de Orchidáceae" for which she won the Crístobal M. Hicken award. On completion of the Flora Patagónica project in 1999 she began to compile all of her orchid work, with the aim of creating a book, unfortunately this dream remained unrealised at the time of her death. In 2002 the International Orchidaceae Conference was dedicated to her honour.
Sources:
Fortunato, R. H., 2005, "Maevia Noemí Correa (1914-2005) ", Boletín de la Sociedad Argentina de Botánica 40(1-2): 137-139. ISSN 1851-2372.
