South African botanist. Anna Amelia Obermeyer (later Mauve) was born and raised in Pretoria, where she obtained BSc and MSc degrees from Transvaal University College (now Pretoria University), while studying under Professor C.E.B. Bremekamp. She joined the Transvaal Museum in 1929 and held the post of botanist for the next decade before resigning, as was customary then, when she married.
An authority on the Acanthaceae, she produced revisions of Barleria, Blepharis, and Petalidium. In 1937 she and Vivian FitzSimons collected some of the first specimens from the Eastern Highlands of Rhodesia (now Mutare and Chipinge Districts of Zimbabwe). Around this time she also accompanied H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt and I.C. Verdoorn on an expedition to the Soutpansberg Salt Pan. As well writing up an account of the specimens collected on this expedition, she worked on collections from the Vernay-Lang expedition to the Kalahari and those sent by Herbert Lang from Kruger National Park.
She resumed her career in 1957 when she joined the National Herbarium, where the botanical collections of the Transvaal Museum had been transferred in 1953. Until her retirement in 1972, she worked mainly on petaloid monocots, publishing many descriptions of individual new species and completing revisions of Anthericum, Dipcadi, and Lagarosiphon. She was, furthermore, the major contributor to the Flowering Plants of Africa during this period. In recognition of this and other contributions, the South African Association of Botanists, of which she was a founding member, awarded her its Senior Medal for Botany in 1983. Volume 42 (1970-1972) of the Flowering Plants of Africa and Volume 53, Part 6, of the South African Journal of Botany were dedicated her.
She was a member of AETFAT and the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, and served for many years on the council of the South African Biological Society, whose journal she edited for part of this time. In total she collected some 4,000 specimens, mainly on short field trips in South Africa. Several plant species were named after her including Asparagus obermeyerae Jessop, Barleria ameliae A. Meeuse, Blepharis obermeyerae Vollesen, Hemizygia obermeyerae Ashby, and Lachenalia ameliae W.F. Barker.
Sources:
H.F. Glen, 2002, "Obituary: Anna Amelia Obermeyer-Mauve (1907-2001)", Bothalia, 32(1): 127-130.
