Mabel Cheveley Rayner

Mabel Mary Cheveley Rayner (c. 1890 – 1948 ) was an English botanist specialising in mycology. She published books and articles on plant physiology and was one of the first researchers to propose that mycorrhizal interactions could both help and harm plants.

Education Rayner received a B.Sc. with honors in botany in 1908 from the University of London. She became interested in studying Calluna vulgaris in 1910, and earned a doctor of science degree for work on this topic, also from the University of London.

Rayner "thoroughly reviewed" academic research into mycorrhizal research, which had significantly increased in the nineteenth century. After publishing her doctoral thesis on mycorrhizas in 1915, she was employed by The Forestry Commission to undertake research on the mycological relationship in forestry environments. The commission gave Rayner a nursery at Wareham Heath, Dorset to perform research. Rayner also travelled to collect samples from different climate zones.

Personal life Rayner married William Neilson Jones in 1912. Neilson-Jones, William; Rayner, Mabel Mary Cheveley (1920). A textbook of plant biology. London: Methuen & Co. Rayner, M. C (1922). Nitrogen Fixation in Ericaceae. OCLC 79618085. Rayner, M. C (1927). Mycorrhiza: an account of non-pathogenic infection by Fungi in vascular plants and bryophytes. London: Wheldon & Wesley. OCLC 4358688. Keeble, Frederick; Rayner, M. C (1931). Practical plant physiology. London: Bell. OCLC 69026483.