Jeanne M. Borle, sometimes known as Johanna Louise Borle or Lydia Borle (maiden name Mühlemann), was married to the Swiss medical missionary Dr James Borle. They arrived at the Elim mission in present Limpopo Province in June 1905. After her husband's death in 1918 Mrs Borle worked as a volunteer at an American Methodist mission in Inhambane, Mozambique, for a while. She became interested in plants at this time and sent plants from Maputo (1919-1920), Bulawayo (Zimbabwe, 1920-1921), Sesheke (Zambia, 1922), and later from Grootfontein (Namibia) and Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha, South Africa) to the National Herbarium in Pretoria. From there duplicates were sent to several overseas herbaria. She eventually returned to Elim in the late nineteen-fifties and worked there as a volunteer, doing occupational therapy and teaching patients to read and write, until the age of 97. She died two years later, aged 99. The species Acacia borleae was named after her by J. Burtt Davy*.

List of sources:

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

Jeanne M. Borle. Wikipedia. Retrieved on 20 August 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_M._Borle

Van der Merwe, C.F. Elim Hospital - the first 100 years. Part 1. South African Medical Journal, 2001, Vol. 91(12), pp. 1069-1072. Part 2, Ibid, 2002, Vol. 92(1), pp. 75-77.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2023-09-22 12:13:56