Genus Elsiea

For Elizabeth ‘Elsie’ Esterhuysen (1912–2006), South African botanist and plant collector. She studied at the University of Cape Town, obtaining an MSc, worked in the McGregor Museum, Kimberley (1936–1937), and from 1938 in the Bolus Herbarium in Cape Town. She has been called ‘the most outstanding collector ever of South African flora’ (Karel Bremer) amassing some 36 000 herbarium specimens, many high-altitude species. She was an authority on Cape flora, particularly Restionaceae, Ericaceae and Rutaceae. She was also a talented illustrator, producing mainly black and white line drawings.