Miss Star Garabedian was educated at St Cyprian's, a private girls school in Cape Town. She continued her studies at the South African College (from 1918 the University of Cape Town), passed the intermediate examination for the BA degree (equivalent to the first year of study) in 1916, and was awarded the MA degree in botany by the University of Cape Town in 1919. In 1920 she joined the staff of the South African Museum, Cape Town, as botanical assistant and head of the Department of Botany. One of her first tasks was to build up a card index from which she was able to enumerate the herbarium sheets held. She also worked on the recently acquired Range collection of plants from South West Africa (now Namibia), starting with the grasses and with the specimens already named. This project took three years to complete and resulted in a publication, "Contribution to a knowledge of the flora of South West Africa. 1. List of grasses" in the Annals of the South African Museum, (1925, Vol. 16(2), 46 pp.) Meanwhile she had also published "A review of Emilia" (family Compositae; Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1924, No. 4, pp. 137-144).

Garabedian did much curatorial work in the herbarium herself. She also encouraged pupils and university students to visit the herbarium and lectured to both adults and children, which created a good deal of educational work, and had to deal with numerous enquiries relating to identification from the public. As a result she had only limited time for research. Nonetheless she started a comprehensive research project, namely the revision of the genus Aspalathus (family Leguminosae). She worked on this project during a visit to Kew Gardens in 1933 and in European herbaria in 1937, but was unable to complete it.

Carabedian was a member of the Cape Natural History Club and was one of the club consultants, for flowering plants, from 1934 to 1937. In 1937, while in England, she became ill and was advised not to return to South Africa. She therefore resigned her post and remained in the United Kingdom for the rest of her life.

List of sources:

Annals of the South African Museum. List of papers published in volumes I-XXX. Cape Town: South African Museum, 1938.

Barnard, K. H. The South African Museum, Cape Town, 1855-1955 (Centenary Brochure). Cape Town: South African Public Library, 1956.

(The) Cape Naturalist, 1934-1937, Vol. 1(1)-1(4), Club Roll and Club Consultants.

Codd, L. E. and Gunn, M. Additional biographical notes on plant collectors in southern Africa. Bothalia, 1985, Vol. 15(3&4), pp. 631-654.

Gunn, M. and Codd, L. E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Ritchie, W. The history of the South African College, 1829-1918. Cape Town: T. Maskew Miller, 1918.

Summers, R. F. H. A history of the South African Museum, 1825-1975. Cape Town: Balkema, 1975.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2021-09-15 12:23:03