Graziela Maciel Barroso

Prepared by Begonha Bediaga, Ariane Luna Peixoto and Marli Pires Morim in 2015

In botany, Graziela Maciel Barroso dedicated herself mainly to the areas of taxonomy and morphology with actions that provided a foundation in the identification of plant specimens from different biomes, in herbarium collections in Brazil and abroad, which resulted in the publication of articles and books.

Despite the scientific authority that Graziela has conquered throughout her life, her notoriety in forming generations of scientists who today are dedicated to investigations about plants also stands out. Add to this her political positions in favor of nature conservation and democratic freedoms during the military dictatorship, facts that demonstrate courage and coherence that resulted in the leadership she exercised, especially in botany.

Early career

Born in Corumbá, Mato Grosso, in 1912, she married at sixteen with Liberato Joaquim Barroso (1900-1949), an agronomist engineer and employee of the Ministry of Agriculture. They had two children, Manfredo (1930-1960) and Mirtilla (1931-2004).

She lived in several cities in the country, always following her husband's transfers, and finally settled in Rio de Janeiro, in 1940, when he was appointed director of the Horto Florestal. She lived, then, at the Empress Manor (now the National School of Tropical Botany of the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro). Her husband's influence, according to Graziela's own statements, was decisive in her professional career, as he transmitted to her his enthusiasm for botany and taught her the first knowledge on the subject.

At the age of thirty, she started working as a herborizer and seed separator at the Horto Florestal. Two years later, in 1946, she competed in a public contest for the position of naturalist at the same Botanical Garden. After the written tests, she presented her monograph "Study of the Musaceae Family" and was approved in second place, becoming the first woman hired by public examination at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. She began her professional activities in the area of plant systematics with her husband.

In the first years of her career, she dedicated herself to researching plants of the Asteraceae family, also known as Compositae, identifying eight new genera and eighty-four species of this family for science, according to a survey conducted in 2012 by botanist Jimi Nakajima. However, Graziela worked with several other plant families, and in the last years of her life, she delved with special enthusiasm into the study of the Mirtaceae - family of guava and pitanga.

Still in the late 1940s, he received his first homage with the name of the species Senecio barrosianus from the botanist Ángel Júlio Cabrera. From then on, three other genera and 83 species of plants were 'baptized' with the scientific name in honor of Graziela Maciel Barroso, according to Nakajima.

Given the importance of the German language in the sciences, Graziela dedicated herself to studying the language throughout her life, as shown in numerous translations, either for colleagues and students, or as a way to fix and learn the language. This material can be found in the Graziela Maciel Barroso Archive, at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, and the inventory of documents can be found on the institution's website.

Widowed at a young age, Graziela, then 37, kept up a fast pace of scientific production and continued to excel in plant taxonomy, despite the fact that her university degree and doctorate came later. At the age of 47, she entered the Natural History course at the former Universidade do Estado da Guanabara - now Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). While still in the second year of college, the death of her son Manfredo in a plane crash deeply shook Graziela. However, once again she demonstrated perseverance - a characteristic that accompanied her all her life - finishing the course in 1962.

Doctorate at the age of 61

In 1973 he defended his doctoral thesis at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). From then on, he expanded even more the scope of his teaching and began to teach in post-graduation courses, as well as guiding master's and doctoral students in several universities. However, he remained concerned with transmitting botanical knowledge to a wider public and thus continued to offer about a hundred courses throughout Brazil.

In the early years of the creation of the University of Brasilia, Graziela was invited to create the Department of Botany, where she taught from 1966 to 1969. During the military dictatorship, when the police invaded the UNB, she fought in defense of democratic freedoms, protected students from prisons, and protested against the dismissal of professors, as shown by the documents in her personal file, such as her letters to various authorities, including the then President of the Republic, Marshall Arthur da Costa e Silva, in which she denounced injustices that were occurring at the university.

She returned to Rio de Janeiro for personal reasons, and her return to the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden spurred new research, according to the testimony of botanist Cecília Costa, at the end of this document.

Since the 1960s, Graziela positioned herself for the preservation of nature and, together with Burle Marx, Margaret Mee and other ecologists, denounced deforestation, fires and other environmental disasters, as shown in articles from several newspapers of the time. The interaction with Burle Marx grew a mutual admiration, in which, on the one hand, the landscaper relied on his botanical knowledge and, on the other, she respected the artist who exalted even more the beauty of plants. Graziela participated in several excursions organized by Burle Marx throughout Brazil to get to know the plants, many of them introduced for the first time in landscaping.

In addition to numerous articles in specialized journals, she is the author of the three volumes of the book "Systematics of Angiosperms of Brazil", published in 1978, 1984 and 1986, respectively. Together with the publication of "Fruits and seeds - morphology applied to the systematics of dicotyledons", in 1999, Graziela produced the main reference works in the teaching of botany at that time.

Upon her compulsory retirement in 1982, Graziela was forced to step away from the Botanical Garden. However her work rhythm did not slow down and even though she had to work at home in the distant district of Pedra de Guaratiba, she kept on working under the microscope, identifying and classifying plants for everyone who asked her to, besides her dedication to her students. Her studies can be verified in the countless pads, notebooks, binders, loose leaves, and other supports in which she fixed seeds, leaves, and other vegetal materials; and in whose blank spaces beside, she wrote down her observations.

After a while, little by little, Graziela started working at the Botanical Garden with the same vigor and dedication as before. She said in interviews that her greatest joy was to see that many of her students were taking prominent positions in the sciences, in teaching, and in management positions in Brazilian scientific institutions.

Recognized in Brazil and abroad, Graziela received several honors in life, such as the President of the Republic Order of Scientific Merit and the Millennium Botany Award, perhaps the most relevant of all, since she is the only Brazilian with this decoration, given to botanists dedicated to the training of personnel in the area.

She died in 2003, at the age of 92, still working at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. A month earlier, she had been elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, but received the decoration post-mortem.

Her biography shows that, despite a late start in the profession and under the direct influence of her husband, Graziela managed to overcome the difficulties in asserting herself as a woman in the then male environment of botany. The setbacks of life, such as premature widowhood and the loss of her son, did not discourage Graziela, who was able to contribute in a decisive way to the knowledge of tropical flora in the second half of the 20th century.

Graziela's professional legacy can be evaluated through her 75 students and 65 articles published in scientific journals, besides having described to science eleven new genera and 132 plant species. Still, according to botanist Jimi Najima, there are four genera and 83 species of plants with the scientific name in honor of Graziela Maciel Barroso.

Her 'disciples', spread in many teaching and research centers in Brazil and abroad, emphasize two fundamental characteristics to understand her leadership in botany at that time: generosity in sharing knowledge and talent in awakening vocations.

Chronology