Margot Bernice Forde

Margot Bernice Forde (née Ashwin; 1 June 1935 – 23 June 1992) was a New Zealand botanist, curator, and taxonomist.

Biography Forde was educated at Wellington Girls' College, and graduated from Victoria University College where she studied natural history and botany. She was married to fellow New Zealand botanist Bernard Forde, and they both received their PhD degrees from the Botany Department of the University of California, Davis in the early 1960s.

Margot Forde researched the plant taxonomies of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang (China), and the Caucasus. She was a leading scientist in the field of seed conservation in grazing plants. The Margot Forde Genebank at AgResearch, in Palmerston North, was named in her honour.