Eileen Alice Willa (1905–1999) was a New Zealand botanical collector, museum curator and writer.
In 1943, Victor Lindauer, a New Zealand algae collector, asked her to collect seaweeds from Stewart Island, to help him in his work.
[1] Three species of seaweed honour Eileen Willa: Ptilonia willana (found at Port Pegasus in 1945),[2] the large brown kelp, Durvillaea willana (Broad Bay, 1946) and Crouania willae (Ringaringa, 1960).
Her daughter, Ellen, died in 1975, and her husband in 1985, at which point she presented her herbarium of Stewart Island algae to the National Museum, Wellington, and left Stewart Island to live in Invercargill, where she died in 1999.
"[1] She collected some 6000 specimens[1] held in at least seven herbaria (AK, BPBM, MIN, MICH, MELU, NHMUK and S),[5] and across some 74 plant families.