[2] Her mother, Devi Kuruvayi, was the daughter of John Child Hannyngton, colonial administrator and Resident at Travancore, and Kunhi Kurumbi Kuruvai.

[3] Although her sisters all entered arranged marriages, Janaki chose a life of scholarship and study over matrimony, an uncommon move for a woman.

[4] Ammal did her primary schooling at Sacred Heart Convent in Thalassery followed by a bachelor's degree which she obtained from Queen Mary's College, Madras.

[1] At that time, the sweetest sugarcane in the world was the Saccharum officianarum variety from Papua New Guinea and India imported it from Southeast Asia.

By manipulating polyploid cells through cross-breeding of hybrids in the laboratory, Janaki Ammal was able to create a high yielding strain of the sugarcane that would thrive in Indian conditions.

However, her status as a single woman from a caste considered backward created irreconcilable problems for Dr. Janki Ammal among her male peers at Coimbatore.

She travelled to Nepal on a plant collection expedition during 1948-1949 and returned to Wisley with specimens (Fragaria, Iris, Rhododendron, Rosa and Rubus).

The Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants which she wrote jointly with C. D. Darlington in 1945 was a compilation that incorporated much of her own work on many species.

[citation needed] Following her retirement, Ammal continued to publish the original findings of her research focusing special attention on medicinal plants and ethnobotany.

As a geneticist working for the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden Wisley in the early 1950s, Janaki Ammal was investigating the effects of colchicine on a number of woody plants, including Magnolia, where a stock solution in water is made up and applied to the growing tip of young seedlings once the cotyledons (seed leaves) have fully expanded.

As Magnolia kobus seeds were available in quantity, a number of seedlings were treated by Dr Janaki Ammal and ultimately planted on Battleston Hill at Wisley.

[13] She also advocated greatly for the preservation of native plants and due to her efforts, Silent Valley Forests was saved from a hydroelectric project.

Dr. Janaki Ammal is mentioned among Indian Americans of the Century in an India Currents magazine article published on 1 January 2000, by S.Gopikrishna & Vandana Kumar: "In an age when most women didn't make it past high school, would it be possible for an Indian woman to obtain a PhD at one of America's finest public universities and also make seminal contributions to her field?!"

Kerala-born Janaki was arguably the first woman to obtain a PhD in botany in the U.S. (1931) and remains one of the few Asian women to be conferred a DSc (honoris causa) by her alma mater, the University of Michigan.

During her time at Ann Arbor she lived in the Martha Cook Building, an all-female residence hall and worked with Harley Harris Bartlett, a professor at the Department of Botany.

on her in 1956 in recognition of her contributions to botany and cytogenetics said: "Blest with the ability to make painstaking and accurate observations, she and her patient endeavours stand as a model for serious and dedicated scientific workers."

[26] Her great achievements led the John Innes Institute to offer postgraduate scholarships in her name to students from developing countries.