Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer

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Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer
BornJune 14, 1870
Van Dyne, Wisconsin, United States
DiedApril 17 or July, 1942 (aged 71–72)
Santo Tomas Internment Camp, Manila, Philippines
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWashington State University
Stanford University
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
Author abbrev. (botany)Elmer

Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer (June 14, 1870 – 1942) was an American botanist and plant collector.[1] He was mostly active in the Philippines, his collections being described as new species by both himself and other botanists. The Japanese sent him into Santo Tomas Internment Camp during the Philippines campaign and he perished there.

Life and achievements[]

Elmer was born on June 14, 1870 in Van Dyne, Wisconsin, United States,[2][1] to Jacob Van Dyne and Alvina Elmer.[2] He was educated at Washington State College in 1899,[3][4] married Emma Osterman in 1902[2] and earned an A.M. from Stanford University in 1903[4] (or 1904).[3] Between 1896 and the year of the earning of his A.M., he collected numerous plants in Western United States (especially California)[5][notes 1] then began describing new plant species, his name appearing in earlier numbers of Botanical Gazette [de][4] (e.g. Festuca idahoensis in 1903).[7] In 1904, he went to the Philippines (an unincorporated territory of the United States at that time), where he consequently made his home through the life.[3] He made extensive plant collections in the Philippines from 1904 to 1927, and also in Borneo.[1] According to Albert William Christian Theodore Herre, Elmer Drew Merrill regarded Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer as the best plant collector working in the Philippines and Southwestern Asia until the beginning of WWII.[4] Merrill gave such reputation with a proof, i.e. Merrill (1929).[4] He was editor of  [species],[1] where he published more than 1,500 new taxa.[5]

Death[]

Elmer and his wife, Emma, had once planned to leave American-controlled Manila and return to their homeland shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred.[8] The Japanese invasion succeeded it in no time and involved the couple, too. Elmer died on April 17[1][4] (or in July), 1942 in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Manila, Philippines,[3] of natural causes.[5] His private type collection, held in the Philippine National Herbarium, was destroyed about that time.[5] Emma Osterman Elmer survived internment.[8]

Legacy[]

Many taxa are named in honor of Elmer, including  [species] (Ames) Ames (syn. Adenostylis elmeri Ames[9]),  [species] Merr. (syn. B. peltata Elmer, nom. illeg.),[10][11]  [species] Fernald,[12]  [species] Merr.[13] (note that at least all of these four examples are based on Elmer's type specimens), and so on.

The genera Adelmeria (Zingiberaceae),[14] Elmera (Saxifragaceae), Elmerinula (Dothideomycetes), and Elmerobryum (Hypnaceae) are also named after him.[citation needed]

The standard author abbreviation Elmer is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[15]

Explanatory notes[]

  1. ^ His name also appears in a list of plant collectors of the Kew herbarium specimens published in 1901, as one who conducted activity in Washington Territory.[6]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e van Steenis-Kruseman (1950).
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Copeland (1949:1).
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Herre (1945).
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Thomas (1961).
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Natural History Museum (BM). "Elmer, Adolph Daniel Edward (1870-1942) on JSTOR". Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  6. ^ "A list of the collectors whose plants are in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to 31st December, 1899". Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information. 1901: 21. 1901.
  7. ^ Elmer, A. D. E. (1903). "New Western plants. I". Botanical Gazette. 36: 53.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "Arlington News". The Enterprise. 48 (2). 13 January 1944. p. 7. Retrieved 19 May 2021. Word was received indirectly through other relatives, that Mrs. Emma Osterman Elmer, at one time a resident of Arlington, is alive and seemingly well in the Philippines. It has been over a year since last hearing from her, and it was feared she was dead. Mrs. Elmer and her husband, a professor in the University of the Philippines for many years, planning to return shortly before Pearl Harbor. Later, Professor Elmer died in a concentration camp, and since that, no word had been received. Mrs. Elmer wrote that she was living in an apartment, but was under close watch at all times, she had good food and kind treatment.
  9. ^ Ames, Oakes (1912). "Orchidaceae novae et criticae Insularum Philippinarum". Leaflets of Philippine Botany. 5: 1552.
  10. ^ Elmer, A. D. E. (1915). "Two Hundred Twenty Six New Species―I". Leaflets of Philippine Botany. 7: 2556f.
  11. ^ Merrill, E. D. (1918). "New or noteworthy Philippine plants, XIII". The Philippine Journal of Science: Section C. Botany. 13 (1): 39.
  12. ^ Fernald, M. L. (1898). "Notes upon Some Northwestern Castilleias of the Parviflora Group". Erythea: A Journal of Botany, West American and General. 6: 51.
  13. ^ Merrill (1929:98).
  14. ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2018). Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition [Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2018. ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  15. ^ IPNI.  Elmer.

General bibliography[]

Further reading[]

  • Sayre, G. (1975). "Cryptogamae Exsiccatae: an annotated bibliography of exsiccatae of algae, lichens, hepaticae, and musci. V. Unpublished Exsiccatae: I. Collectors". Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden. 19 (3): 317.

External links[]

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