Lucy Beatrice Moore is known as the ‘the mother of New Zealand botany’ was born on 14 July 1906 in Warkworth, New Zealand. She grew up as the fifth child of eight siblings on their farm, Huamara. Her parents Janet Morison and Harry Blomfield Moore (librarian) encouraged her love for nature and plants. After attending primary school at Warkworth and the Epsom Girls’ Grammar School she won a scholarship to Auckland University College (AUC).
She enrolled at AUC in 1925 and obtained her MSc in 1929 for her thesis paper on the root parasite Dactylanthus. During her time at AUC, she met fellow student, Lucy May Cranwell. Moore and Cranwell began collaborating on field research in remote New Zealand. They published important research on the high-altitude vegetation of Mt. Moehau, Mt. Maungapohatu, and the Hen and Chickens Islands.
Moore applied for university positions at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington but was denied. She then obtained a position at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), in 1938, which had recently opened its doors to women. She was assigned to work on “lower plants and weeds”. Moore conducted research and published an influential paper on the life history and invasion strategies of the fern Paesia. She continued research in ecology publishing papers on invasive species (such as the invasive scabweed Raoulia and Rumex).
She moved to Molesworth station and worked on the restoration of the land from extensive sheep grazing, going on to publishing papers on introduced grass and tussock establishment. Later in life, Moore became an algologist and along with illustrator Nancy M. Adams, published a book – Plants of the New Zealand coast (1963) to educate and inform the public. Moore died on 9 June 1987 at a rest home in Orewa, New Zealand.
References:
John Morton. ‘Moore, Lucy Beatrice’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2000. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5m55/moore-lucy-beatrice (accessed 12 February 2020)
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 