Margaret J.A. Simpson

Margaret Jane Annand Bulfin (née Simpson) (1920–1996) was a Scotland-born New Zealand botanist, botanical collector, and mountaineer. She was an expert on New Zealand seeds and their germination, viability and identification, and as a Scientist at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research she performed extensive field work including vegetation surveys in different areas of New Zealand. She co-authored the book Seeds of New Zealand Gymnosperms and Dicotyledons, and was awarded the Allan Mere Award for her contributions to New Zealand botany.

Early life Margaret Jane Annand Simpson was born in Scotland on 7 July 1920 and emigrated with her family to New Zealand when she was five years old. She grew up in the Bay of Plenty, and became an avid tramper, mountaineer and botanist.

Simpson was appointed as DSIR Scientist in 1974, and her research focused on native New Zealand species' seed germination, viability and identification. She was a keen field botanist, and went on many field trips, often in the company of other women botanists as well as visiting international botanists.

Although she was not a taxonomist, Simpson named one species together with Lucy Moore: Myosotis brockiei L.B.Moore & M.J.A.Simpson. At least two plants have been named after her, both of which are found in Nelson Lakes National Park: Simpson collected nearly 4,000 herbarium specimens over the course of her career, most of which are housed at the Allan Herbarium at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research in Lincoln. She published a handful of scientific articles over the course of her scientific career, and these were published under her unmarried name, Margaret J.A. Simpson. Through her botanical field work, Simpson became interested in French naturalists who visited New Zealand, and she wrote short biographies of Jules Dumont d'Urville and Étienne Raoul, among others.

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