New Zealand authority on orchids, liverworts and ferns, at Massey University from 1945. Ella Campbell was born in Dunedin to a family of Scottish origin. She attributed the development of her interest in botany to early morning walks with her builder father, who extinguished safety lamps on building sites while his young daughter explored the plant life of verges and wasteground. Her mother Agnes also encouraged her interest in science, having studied and worked in pharmacy, and a family friend, botanist Helen Kirkland Dalrymple, was another influence. Campbell trained as a teacher, achieving her diploma in 1930, and went on to study botany, geology and chemistry at the University of Otago. She gained her master's degree in 1934 with a thesis on the stellar anatomy and developmental morphology of the water fern Histiopteris incisa (Thunb.) J.Sm.

After a stint teaching at Waitaki Girls' School in Oamaru, Campbell obtained an assistant lecturer position in botany at Victoria University of Wellington. She went on to join the faculty of the University of Otago in 1936, supporting her former mentor, J.E. Holloway. She remained here through to 1944, learning German during the war years. In 1945 she began an appointment at Massey Agricultural College (later Massey University), where she was the only woman on the academic staff until 1963. In the Department of Agricultural Botany she lectured to horticulture students on plant morphology and anatomy, but had little time for research at first. She did fit in many field trips, however, to locations including Himatangi Beach, Tongariro National Park and Kapiti Island, and in her spare time was active in the Massey University women's hockey team. She also co-authored the textbook Agricultural Botany (1954, 1960).

When she did find time for research, Campbell focussed on bryophytes, especially the morphology and taxonomy of thalloid liverworts and hornworts. She also looked at the mycorrhizal associations of orchids, and in the late 1970s collaborated on a series of papers on the chemistry of bryophytes. Her most productive research came after her retirement in 1976, in which year she was awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of Otago. She continued to occupy her office at Massey as an honorary research associate and the 1980s saw her study the Metzgeriales and Marchatiales, as well as produce a long series on New Zealand hornworts, for which she used scanning and transmission electron microscope images to depict the spores and other features of the plants. She maintained a large collection of living bryophytes in a courtyard of Massey's Ecology building, which was often under threat of removal for her methods of cultivation involved tatty looking plastic bags that proved an eyesore.

As well as bryophytes, Campbell collected orchids enthusiastically and corresponded with local botanists who shared her interest, as well as studying species in cultivation. She was a founder member of the Manawatu Orchid Society in 1970 and accredited as a judge by the Orchid Council of New Zealand in 1978, which qualification saw her participate in several World Orchid Conferences. Another of her interests was the specialised flora of peat bogs.

Over the course of her career Campbell made many overseas study trips, for example to the Bishop Museum, Honolulu (1936), Cambridge University, Singapore, India and Nepal (1958), Australia (1960, 1975, 1977, 1988, 1990, 1991,1992), Malaysia (1976, 1978) and the U.S.A. and Canada (1968). She also visited Europe in 1977, 1979 and 1985, and Japan in 1983, among other trips to conferences and botanical events around the world. A keen collector all her life, Campbell was still making field trips in her eighties. She was largely responsible for the development of the herbarium at Massey, which she curated with John Carnahan until 1971, when it was given its official designation MPN (Massey Palmerston North). It was later named the Dame Ella Campbell Herbarium in 2003, in recognition of her contribution to the university. She had been made Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order in 1997 for her services to science. Campbell never married nor became a mother, but was held in affection by her colleagues, students and former students, (one of whom made her a godmother), and remained in contact with all her 14 nieces and nephews. She died at her retirement home in 2003.

Sources:
J. Braggins, 2005, "Dame Ella Orr Campbell DNZM, Dip Tchng, MA (Hons), DSc (1910-2003)", Journal of Bryology, 27(1): 75-76
G.L Rapson, 2004, New Zealand Journal of Botany, 42: 695-708.