Greta Stevenson
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Greta Stevenson circa 1941
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| Born | Greta Barbara Stevenson (1911-06-10)10 June 1911
Auckland, New Zealand
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| Died | 18 December 1990(1990-12-18) (aged 79) |
| Known for | Contributions to mycology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mycology |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | G.Stev. |
Greta Barbara Stevenson (10 June 1911 – 18 December 1990) was a New Zealand botanist and mycologist. She described many new species of Agaricales (gilled mushrooms).
Stevenson was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the oldest of four children of William Stevenson and his wife Grace Mary Scott. William was the managing director of the canned food manufacture Irvine and Stevenson.[1] The Stevenson family moved to Dunedin in 1914, and Greta attended Columba College from 1925 to 1928. She later went on to the University of Otago in 1929, from which she graduated with a BSc in 1932, and then an MSc in botany with first-class honors in 1933.[2] Her thesis was about the life history of the rare parasitic Korthalsella.[3] After graduating she moved to London to attend the Imperial College of Science and Technology, where she completed a PhDinmycology and plant pathology. She married Edgar Cone in 1936, a research student in chemical engineering, with whom she had two children. Returning to New Zealand, while her children were young she was employed with the Wellington City Council as an analyst and a soil microbiologist for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research soil bureau. During this time she also taught science at several secondary schools.[2] Stevenson was an avid mountaineer, and climbed the east peak of Mount Earnslaw, then a significant accomplishment for an all-woman party.[4]
Stevenson held several appointments: Otago University; Wellington City Council; Cawthron Institute, Nelson; Imperial College, London; Crawley College of Further Education; and King Alfred's College.[1] Stevenson died in London on 18 December 1990, at the age of 79.[2]
In 2017, Stevenson was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[5]
Stevenson published three books on ferns and fungi, all of which were illustrated with her own drawings. She is known for her five-part series on the Agaricales of New Zealand, published in the Kew Bulletin between 1962 and 1964, in which she described over 100 new species.[6][7] Her historically important private collection of New Zealand fungi were incorporated with those of Marie Taylor and Barbara Segedin to form the basis of the New Zealand Fungarium.[8]
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