Biography

Swiss plant physiologist. After receiving a doctorate in plant physiology from the University of Basle in 1917, Marguerite Getrud Anna Henrici was hired by her supervisor, Prof. Gustav Senn, as his private assistant at the Botanical Institute in Basle, where he was investigating the physiology of alpine plants.

In 1921 she accepted a job offer from Arnold Theiler, the founding director of the Veterinary Institute at Onderspoort, whom she had first met as a student eight years earlier while he was attending a refresher course at Basle. On her arrival, she was posted to the government farm Armoedsvlakte, near Vryburg, to study natural pastures, after which she spent an additional 18 months at the veterinary station near Ermelo. Her physiological studies, which appeared as a series of scientific publications, earned her a DSc degree from the University of South Africa in 1927.

In 1929 she was transferred to the Division of Plant Industry and placed in charge of the Veld Reserve at Fauresmith in Orange Free State. She was provided with a purpose-built laboratory for her research into the nutritive qualities of Karoo veld, which she combined with investigations into poisonous plants and animal health.

After her official retirement in 1948, she bought a property in Fauresmith and continued to work in a temporary capacity at the Veld Reserve for nearly a decade. Over the course of a long career, she created a collection of between 6,000 and 7,000 specimens, mainly of Karoo plants from Ermelo and western Orange Free State. She was awarded a Senior Captain Scott medal from the South African Biological Society in 1935 and was an honorary life member of the South African Association of Botanists and a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. In her native city she was recognised with an honorary membership in the Basle Botanical Society and an honorary doctorate from the university. The genus Neohenricia L. Bolus and Salsola henriciae Verd., based on her collections, were named in her honour.