Seaweed sisters
The nooks and crannies of Aotearoa New Zealand’s extensive coastline are home to hugely diverse and luxuriant seaweed flora. Over the last 100 years a significant number of women have contributed to the serious study of New Zealand’s macro-algae.
This has created a botanical whakapapa from the ‘two Lucies’ – Lucy Moore and Lucy Cranwell – to Nancy Adams and Eileen Willa, and to Wendy Nelson and her students. All of these women showed a passion for the botanical world from an early age. They learned from and supported one another in their careers as phycologists (scientists who study seaweed/algae) and have had a huge impact on seaweed science in Aotearoa.
Stenogramma interruptum (C.Agardh) Mont. ex Harv., Collected by Dr Lucy Moore, Worser Bay. Identified by Nancy Adams. Te Papa (A003078)
Collecting seaweed
The women showcased here have made some of the most important contributions to seaweed science in New Zealand. They have been some of the biggest collectors (and identifiers) of specimens and their collections continue to be used for research today.
Meet some of the seaweed sisters
The information associated with scientific specimens and drawings tells us a lot – who collected them, who studied and identified them, and who they were named for. For example, Te Papa holds 5,704 specimens of algae collected by Wendy Nelson, 2,286 by Nancy Adams, 1018 by Roberta D’Archino and 478 by Eileen Willa. Together, Nancy Adams and Wendy Nelson have identified nearly 15,000 algae specimens, about half of our algae collection!
One of the most significant ways a scientist’s contributions to research is recognised is through the naming of species after them. Many women in Aotearoa New Zealand have been honoured in this way, including some of the seaweed sisters Lucy Cranwell, Lucy Moore, Nancy Adams, and Eileen Willa:
Codium cranwellia and Gigartina cranwelliae – species of algae named after Lucy Cranwell
Aristoptilon mooreanum and Ptilonia mooreana species of algae named after Lucy Moore
Lessonia adamsiae – species of algae named after Nancy Adams
Ptilonia willana – species of algae named after Eileen Willa, who collected the type species at Port Pegasus in 1945
Apophlaea darchinoae – species of algae named after Roberta D’Archino
Skeletonella nelsoniae – species of algae named after Wendy Nelson.
Having a genus named in your honour is an even greater tribute – as there far fewer genera than species, and only a handful of new plant genera are described each year. The following genera of algae have been named after New Zealand phycologists Wendy Nelson, Judith Sutherland and Nancy Adams:
Wendya – genus of algae named after Wendy Nelson
Judithia – genus of algae named after Judith Sutherland
Nancythalia and Adamsiella – genera of algae named after Nancy Adams.
The numbers
We hold about 30,000 specimens of algae (seaweed) from New Zealand. Here are the numbers of seaweed specimens collected and identified by some of our women phycologists in the Te Papa herbarium (as of February 2024):
| no. specimens | no. identifications | algae specimens | % specimens that are algae | % Te Papa algae collection | |
| Wendy Nelson | 6267 | 9142 | 5707 | 91% | 19% |
| Nancy Adams | 3321 | 6874 | 2286 | 69% | 8% |
| Roberta d'Archino | 1024 | 1052 | 1018 | 99% | 3% |
| Lucy Moore | 828 | 607 | 45 | 5% | 0% |
| Eileen Willa | 809 | 50 | 478 | 59% | 2% |
| Jenn Dalen | 189 | 151 | 188 | 99% | 1% |
| Lucy Cranwell | 23 | 3 | 13 | 57% | 0% |
| Totals | 12,461 | 17,879 | 9,735 | 33% |
