Stone, Ilma Grace (née Balfe)   (1913 - 2001)

Born 11 June 1913 in Brunswick, Australia; died 4 January 2001 (aged 87).

Stone studied at the Department of Botany in University of Melbourne from 1930-1934, graduating with an MSc involving a thesis on sclerotia-forming fungi that cause disease in ornamental plants. However, she did not begin her career studying bryophytes until 1957 when she was appointed as a demonstrator in the Department of Botany at University of Melbourne, at first part-time and then full-time.

Her PhD was awarded in 1963 for A morphogenetic study of stage in the life-cycle of some Victorian cryptograms.

She was awarded a D.Sc. by the University of Melbourne where she was an Honorary Research Fellow when she was 76. She officially retired from the university in 1978 but continued to research and publish until her death in 2001.

She was initially interested in ferns but from 1969 specialised in mosses. Stone is credited with significantly increasing the knowledge of mosses in Australia, especially those in Queensland.

Stone published more than 70 papers during her career, the first when aged 48 and eleven after the age of 80.

Source: Extracted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilma_Grace_Stone
Portrait Photo: 1991, M.Fagg

Collecting localities for 'Stone, I.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 26,303 specimens