Mary A. E. Richards

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Mary A. E. Richards (Mary Alice Eleanor Stokes, 1885–1977) was a Welsh botanist. She was born near Dolgellau, Wales, and grew up mainly in Lichfield, Staffordshire. She studied botany part-time at Mason Science College (now the University of Birmingham). In 1907 she married Major Henry Richards; they traveled widely and had three children. She was active in Brithdir Church, ran a Red Cross hospital from her home during World War I and received the Royal Red Cross. She served as a councillor on the Merioneth County Council and co-authored A Contribution to the Flora of Merioneth.

Widowed in 1942, she visited Abercorn, Northern Rhodesia (now Mbala, Zambia) in 1950 and began collecting African plants at age 65 after contacting Edgar Milne-Redhead at Kew. She collected about 27,000 specimens, discovered new species and even a new genus named Richardsiella. She published Check List of the Flora of Mbala (Abercorn) and District in 1969 with W. V. Morony. Uncomfortable with Zambia’s politics after independence, she moved to Tanzania and spent time near Arusha National Park with conservationist Desmond Vesey-Fitzgerald. For her work, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). At age 89 she returned to Wales and died in 1977, still botanizing up to a week after her ninetieth birthday. Many plant labels bear her name as "Mrs. H. M. Richards."