Mary Ann Robb

Mary Ann Robb (née Boulton; 1829–1912) was a 19th-century English botanist, horticulturalist and botanical collector. The perennial plant Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae is named in her honour. Robb helped make this plant popular in British gardens. She owned property in London as well as Chiltley Place in Liphook where she designed and created a garden. Robb was also an artist. Her drawings are held in the Library and Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Life Mary Anne Robb was born in 1829, and grew up in Oxfordshire. Her paternal grandfather was engineer and businessman Matthew Boulton, based in Birmingham, but her father Matthew Robinson Boulton moved the family south to the Tew Park estate in Great Tew, Oxfordshire. She was friends with Francis Galton and Charles Ellis. She purchased 150 acres at Chiltley Place in Liphook where she designed and created a garden. It was reported that the plant was originally collected near Istanbul in Turkey, and transported back to England in Robb's hatbox, earning it the common name Mrs. Robb's Bonnet.

Robb died in 1912. Her Liphook garden was not maintained during World War I and the estate was broken up and sold in 1929.