Greta Sernander-Du Rietz

Greta Sernander-Du Rietz was a lichenologist, specialising in their ecology and biogeography as well as making collections of specimens. She was the first Swedish woman in this field of biology. She was active from around 1911 until 1928, and then from the early 1950s until the 1980s.

Life and career Greta Sernander-Du Rietz was born 1 November 1897 to Rutger and Signe (née Lindhagen) Sernader. Her father was a prominent member of the Swedish scientific community as professor of plant biology at Uppsala University from 1908 until 1931. She did not matriculate from school or study at university, apart from attending her father's seminars. However, from these and accompanying him on collecting expeditions, she became interested and knowledgeable about lichens. Her interests developed into floristics, plant geography and plant ecology and resulted in her first scientific publication in 1919. In the 1920s she focused on phytogeography of several lichen species.

In 1924 she married the lichenologist Gustaf Einar Du Rietz who she had known for many years, and with whom she had collected lichen specimens. He followed her father as professor of plant biology at Uppsala University. They had a total of 4 children together, one of whom died at a young age shortly before she went with her husband to New Zealand where they made extensive collections of lichens in the company of local scientists as part of the Swedish Australasian Botanical Expedition of 1926–27, a seven-month research tour of various locations. She prepared, drew and took photographs of the specimens for Du Rietz's publications about their discoveries. and others now held at the University of Oslo and University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her early research on lichen ecology, and collections of specimens, provide useful comparative data for more recent research such as on the ecology of lichens that grow on bark in Sweden.

The endemic at risk New Zealand lichen Pseudocyphellaria gretae (Peltigeraceae) was named after her.

Publications Scientific publications by Sernander-DuRietz include: Sernander, G. 1919. Några jämtländska lavfynd. Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 13 338–341. Sernander, G. 1922. En lindholme i Bolmen. Sveriges Natur 13 101–110. Sernander, G. 1923. Parmelia acetabulum (Neck.) Dub. i Skandinavien. Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 17 297–330. Sernander-DuRietz, G. 1926. Parmelia tiliacea, en kustlav och marin inlandsrelikt i Skandinavien. Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 20 352–365. Sernander-DuRietz, G. 1957. Om yttre faktorers inverkan på apotheciebildningen hos Parmelia tiliacea. Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 51 454–488. Sernander-DuRietz, G. 1969. Förekomsten av Physcia magnussonii Frey i Skandinavien och sydvästra Grönland. Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 63 377–386.