Prankerd worked as a school teacher from 1904 to 1911. She was appointed a part time lecturer in Botany at Bedford College in 1912, before becoming a full time lecturer there until 1917. In 1912 she became a part-time Reader in Botany at Birkbeck College, London. In 1917 Plankerd was appointed a lecturer in Botany at the University of Reading, where she lectured until her death. Colleagues included Tom Harris and Walter Styles, who wrote her obituary. She gained her Doctor of Sciences degree from the University of London in 1929. Between 1922 and 1936 she published a series of pioneering studies in the growth of ferns in response to gravity. Although she was credited with all the research and authorship of the published papers, her work was presented at various scientific meetings by male colleagues. Prankerd died in Reading in 1939 after being hit by a bus, and her mother endowed a research scholarship in her name to the University of Reading.
Publications
Prankerd, T. L., On the Structure and Biology of the Genus Hottonia. Annals of Botany os-25 : 253-268.
Prankerd, T. L., Notes on the Occurrence of Multinucleate Cells. Annals of Botany os-29 : 599-604.
PRANKERD, T. L., Preliminary observations on the nature and distribution of the statolith apparatus in plants. Rep. Brit. Ass., Manchester Meeting, 1915, p. 722, Publ. London, 1916
Prankerd, T. L., Statocytes of the Wheat Haulm. Botanical Gazette 70: 148-152
Prankerd, T. L., On the Irritability of the Fronds of Asplenium bulbiferum, With Special Reference to Graviperception. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 93: 143-152; doi:10.1098/rspb.1922.0010
Prankerd, T. L., The Ontogeny of Graviperception in Osmunda regalis. Annals of Botany os-39 : 709-720.
Prankerd, T. L., Studies in the Geotropism of Pteridophyta. IV. On Specificity in Graviperception. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany, 48: 317–336. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1929.tb00590.x
Prankerd, T. L., Studies in the Geotropism of the Pteridophyta. V. Some Effects of Temperature on Growth and Geotropism in Asplenium bulbiferium. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 116: 479-493 doi:10.1098/rspb.1935.0004
Prankerd, T. L., Studies in the Geotropism of Pteridophyta. VI. On Rhythm in Graviperception and Reaction to Gravity. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 120: 126-141
