Ilma Grace Stone

Ilma Grace Stone (1913 – 2001), née Balfe, was an Australian botanist who specialised in bryology. She was an author, collector, and researcher of Australian mosses, a subject on which she lectured and wrote.

Stone had graduated from the University of Melbourne by 1933, with a degree in Science, but did not begin her work on Bryophtes until around 20 years later. In 1953 she published a description of a new species, Fissidens gymnocarpus, and continued to contribute to moss taxonomy. She is noted for keen observation and attention to often small and overlooked moss species, and for her contributions to their taxonomy. Stone is credited with significantly increasing knowledge of mosses in Australia, especially those in Queensland.

Publications

• The Mosses of Southern Australia with George Anderson Macdonald Scott, published in 1976. Illustrations by Celia Rosser.
• Over 70 research papers.