Elzada Clover (1897–1980) was an American botanist who was the first to catalog plant life in the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.

She made numerous expeditions throughout the Southwest in search of native plant species for the university collection, focusing initially on cacti of the Colorado Plateau in Utah.

[7] Although she originally intended to go by pack mule, she discussed the idea of going by boat instead with the pioneering Colorado River boatman, Norman Nevills, whom she met on a collecting expedition in Mexican Hat, Utah.

"[8] The Clover and Nevills 1938 expedition traveled from the town of Green River in Utah through the Cataract and Grand Canyons all the way to Lake Mead.

The trip took 43 days in three boats that were custom-built by Nevills and his father—the Wen, the Botany, and the Mexican Hat—and covered more than 600 miles all told.

Clover and graduate student, Lois Jotter, became the first women to complete a river run of the Grand Canyon.

[11] Part way through the trip, due to tensions among expedition members, Atkinson left and was replaced by photographer Emery Kolb.

[15] Clover's next expedition was on the San Juan River and in Texas, where she gathered fossil plant specimens, which was followed by a 1939 trip to Havasupai Canyon in Arizona.