Suzanne Jovet-Ast

Suzanne Jovet-Ast (1914–2006) was a French botanist, who worked principally at the National Museum of Natural History, France.

Life Suzanne Ast was born in Paris, France, on 8 February 1914. She received her Baccalauréat (1932) from Lycée Voltaire (Paris).

In 1942, she was a preparer in the cryptogam ecology laboratory under the direction of Pierre Allorge. In 1943, she defended her doctoral thesis entitled Research on the Annonaceae of Indochina: leaf anatomy, geographical distribution, and she obtained her doctorate (1943) while working at the National Museum of Natural History. At the museum she met the French botanist Paul Jovet and they married In 1939. In her early work she studied the flowering plant family Annonaceae, while the majority of her professional career was focused on Bryophytes.

In 1938, she wrote the chapter on Annonaceae for the General Flora of Indochina by François Gagnepain.

Research interests In bryology, she studied liverworts, particularly those from tropical and then Mediterranean regions. In the 1960s, Hélène Bischler and Jovet-Ast studied liverworts in the Mediterranean basin and arid and semi-arid zones in the field, which gave rise to numerous publications and applications in biochemistry and pharmacy.

She retired in 1982 but continued collecting and working until her death on 22 February 2006 in Biarritz, France.

Legacy She is the authority for at least 35 taxa using the name Ast including: and 25 using the name Jovet-Ast including: