McHard, Mary Ann (  Jones) (1825 - 1912)

Born at ? on 25 December 1825; died in Bunbury, WA on 18 June 1912.

Born, one of five children, to a glazier and signwriter, Richard Jones (c.1795-1876), and his wife (d.1830). The family migrated to WA in 1829 and lived in and near Perth. In 1845, Mary married Thomas McHard (1819-1864), a widower and storekeeper in Fremantle, and they had four daughters. After the death of her husband, Mary, along with her children, father, and two brothers, became pioneering settlers at the 'Southampton' estate near Balingup.

Mary collected MEL specimens at Blackwood River, 1873-1895; Preston River, 1876; Geographe Bay, 1881; Busselton, 1884; Augusta, Cape Leeuwin and York, 1885; Bayswater, 1887; Gingin, 1892-1893; Victoria Plains, 1893; towards the Murchison River, 1894; and Dardanup, (no date).

Mary collected types of

Pultenaea skinneri F.Muell. (1874),
Xerotes endlicheri F.Muell. (1874), and
Boronia machardiana F.Muell. (1875), named for her.

Along with one of her unmarried brothers, Mary retired to Bunbury where she died in 1912 aged 87.

Mueller gave her a copy of his Select extra-tropical plants (1885).

Seven letters from Mary to Mueller survive.

Source: extracted from: Maroske, Sara and Vaughan, Alison (2014) 'Ferdinand Mueller's female plant collectors: a biographical register', Muelleria Vol.32 [consult for source references]
Portrait Photo: c. 1890, from Apendix 1 of above, from State Library of WA.