Rose Monteiro

{{short description|South African naturalist, writer, scientific illustrator and collector}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

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Rose Monteiro (née Bassett) (1 May 1840 – 11 February 1898) was a late-19th-century plant collector and naturalist who spent several years in Lourenço Marques on Delagoa Bay, Mozambique.

Monteiro was born in London. She married Joachim John Monteiro, a British mining engineer and naturalist.{{Cite web|date=2020-04-23|title=Monteiro, Mrs Rose|url=https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=3328|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108012640/https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=3328|archive-date=8 January 2021|access-date=2021-04-04|website=www.s2a3.org.za}} They spent several years in Angola where he husband worked as a mining engineer and naturalist. Then in 1876 they relocated to Lourenco Marques where her husband worked as a labor recruitment agent for the Cape Colony until his untimely death in 1878.

Monteiro published 'Delagoa Bay: its natives and natural history' in 1891, where she describes the wide range of flora from the region. One species she describes was a succulent of the aloe family, with very thick mottled leaves and heads of pale pink flowers.{{cite journal |last1=Crouch |first1=Neil R. |last2=Smith |first2=Gideon F. |last3=Klopper |first3=Ronell R. |last4=Figueiredo |first4=Estrela |last5=McMurtry |first5=Douglas |last6=Burns |first6=Shane |title=Winter-flowering maculate aloes from the Lowveld of southeastern Africa: Notes on Baker (Asphodelaceae: Alooideae), the earliest name for Schönland |journal=Bradleya |date=20 October 2015 |volume=33 |issue=33 |pages=147–155 |doi=10.25223/brad.n33.2015.a20|s2cid=90436404 }} Monteiro sent samples to Kew Gardens in 1886, where it was cultivated and flowered in 1889. This species was then names after her, Aloe Monteiroæ.{{cite journal |last1=Klopper |first1=Ronell R. |last2=Crouch |first2=Neil R. |last3=Smith |first3=Gideon F. |title=(2399) Proposal to conserve the name against ( : ) |journal=Taxon |date=31 December 2015 |volume=64 |issue=6 |pages=1320 |doi=10.12705/646.21|doi-access=free }}

Monteiro also collected butterflies which she shared with other collectors, many of which were featured in the book 'South-African butterflies'.{{cite book |last1=Trimen |first1=Roland |title=South-African butterflies ; a monograph of the extra-tropical species |date=1887–1889 |location=London |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/8997#/details}} She also contributed scientific illustrations of butterflies to the book 'Rhopalocera exotica ; being illustrations of new, rare, and unfigured species of butterflies'.{{Cite book|last1=Smith|first1=H. Grose|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/38010|title=Rhopalocera exotica ; being illustrations of new, rare, and unfigured species of butterflies|last2=Kirby|first2=W. F.|date=1887|publisher=Gurney & Jackson|volume=1|location=London}}