Mohammed Haniff was a Malaysian botanist who served for many years at the Penang Botanical Gardens. He was born in Penang, where he developed an early passion for botany and was employed as an apprentice at the Botanic Gardens in 1890. He was promoted to Overseer in 1893 and became Field Assistant in 1917. After a brief appointment as Assistant Curator at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, he retired in 1926.

Carrying out extensive exploration of the Malaysian peninsula, in particular its jungles and peaks, Haniff was able to make significant contributions to the herbarium and living collections of the Penang Botanic Gardens. Among the locations he explored were Kedah, Perak, Pahang, Johore, Kelantan and southern Thailand.

Haniff collaborated with several eminent botanists, including Richard Holttum, Henry Ridley and Isaac Burkill, director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. In particular, he co-authored Malay Village Medicine (1930) with Burkill, and contributed to Burkill's Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula (1935). Haniff also published papers in the Gardens' Bulletin, Straits Settlements.

Plants named in his honour include Bulbophyllum hanifii Carr, Dendrobium haniffii Ridley and Eugenia haniffii Henderson, and the genus Haniffia Holttum (Zingiberaceae). The Mohammed Haniff Research and Development Trust Fund was established in 2001 to support botanical training and research in Penang.

Sources:
Friends of the Penang Botanic Garden: Mohamed Haniff (1872-1930) - A Pioneer Malaysian Botanist:
www.botanikapenang.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=7, accessed 23 August 2012.