Greta Sernander-DuRietz was a lichenologist, specialising in their ecology and biogeography as well as making collections of specimens.
[1] Her father was a prominent member of the Swedish scientific community as professor of plant biology at Uppsala University from 1908 until 1931.
In 1924 she married the lichenologist Gustaf Einar Du Rietz who she had known for many years, and with whom she had collected lichen specimens.
They had a total of 4 children together, one of whom died at a young age shortly before she went with her husband to New Zealand in 1926–27 where they made extensive collections of lichens in the company of local scientists.
This expedition was the start of her life-long interest in the lichens of New Zealand[3] but the end of her scientific work as they had further children together.