A.M.University of Colorado Boulder 1925 Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs 1944–1945 Marion Elizabeth Cave (11 February 1904 – 26 September 1995) was an American plant embryologist and cytogeneticist.
She obtained her PhD from University of California, Berkeley where she pioneered the approach to distinguish plant taxonomy using genetics.
For her contributions, Volume 33 of Madroño, a genus (Marionella) of Delesseriaceae, and a subgenus (Mscavea) of Echeandia were all dedicated to her.
[14][15] Besides her research endeavors, she served as an instructor of botany at the University of California College of Pharmacy in San Francisco.
During this time she worked in collaboration with South African phycologist Mary Pocock to pioneer techniques to count the number of chromosomes present in algae using Volvocaceae.
[26][27][28] Besides her research she joined Society of Woman Geographers in 1957 and in 1959 she organized the Ninth International Botanical Congress in Montreal, Canada in 1959.
Joffe published in the Indian journal Phytomorphology that the angiosperm Paeonies embryo formed large coenocyte cells during early development.
Interested in this controversy, Cave recruited graduate students Howard Arnott and Stanton A. Cook to investigate this matter more thoroughly.
In 1963 while Maheshwari was visiting Berkeley, he attempted to sway Cave's opinion on this matter with his lab's slides using his large presence and big personality.
[5][6] In response Cave called for a young graduate student to explain to Maheshwari his mistake in their interpretation.
In addition, her opinion and experiences on cytological squash techniques were requested during the formation of a Plant Microtechnique Manual.
Outside of Berkeley she provided samples to help Rosalie Wunderlich of the University of Vienna resume her research program after World War II.