Richard Arnold Dumber

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Richard Arnold Dümmer , later Richard Arnold Dummer (* 1887 in Cape Town , Cape Colony ; † December 21, 1922 (according to other sources on December 2, 1922) in Uganda ) was a British-South African gardener, plant collector and botanical author. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Dümmer ".

Life

Dümmer began his career as an apprentice gardener under George Herbert Ridley, the curator at Cape Town Municipal Garden at the time . In his spare time he collected plants on the Cape Peninsula , which he identified in the herbarium of the South African Museum . In 1907 he sent numerous specimens of rare Cape Peninsula plants to the South African Museum, several of which were found to be new species. In the following two years he sent more specimens to the museum from Namaqualand and other western regions of the Cape Province . In 1909 a new species of the genus Vangueria from Transvaal belonged to this .

In 1910 Dümmer was a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) in London, which he left again the following year to assist Augustine Henry in the preparation of the book The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland , which she shared with Henry John Elwes had published in 1913. Dümmer then worked in the herbaria and libraries at Kew , the British Museum of Natural History , the Linnean Society of London and at the universities of Oxford , Cambridge and Edinburgh . Between 1912 and 1914 he published ten scientific articles and notes on South African plants. These included the establishment of the new genus Pearsonia , the first description of several new species and contributions to the genera and families Agathosma , Eugenia , Bruniaceae , Alepidea , Lotononis , Pleiospora , Combretaceae , Adenandra and Acmadenia . Two of the articles, A revision of the genus Alepidea De la Roche and A synopsis of the species Lotononis, Eckl. & Zey., And Pleiospora, Harv. , were published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa in 1913 .

In 1914, Dümmer began working for the Kivuvu Rubber Company in Kampala , Uganda. In his spare time he collected flowering plants and mushrooms and went on a botanical expedition to Mount Elgon on the border between Uganda and Kenya . He reported the results of this excursion in the 1919 article The vegetation of the crater and summit of Mount Elgon in Gardeners' Chronicle .

After returning to South Africa, he spent a year organizing and herbarizing his collections. In 1920 he published two articles in the Annals of the Bolus Herbarium , one on several new species of the genus Adenandra and another article on the genus Agathosma .

On December 21, 1922, Dümmer died in a motorcycle accident on Jinja Road in Kampala at the age of 35 .

Dümmer amassed a collection of over 20,000 specimens. These are kept in several herbaria in South Africa and overseas, including the National Herbarium in Pretoria , the South African Museum , the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Claremont (Cape Town), the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew), the Natural History Museum in London , the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh , the Missouri Botanical Garden , the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle and the United States National Herbarium of the Smithsonian Institution .

Honors and Dedication Names

The following species are named after Dümmer:

  • Agathosma dummeri E.Phillips (1917)
  • Allophylus dummeri Baker f. (1919)
  • Andropogon dummeri Stapf (1919)
  • Bothriocline dummeri ( S.Moore ) Wild & GVPope (1977) (Synonyms: Erlangea duemmeri S.Moore , Volkensia duemmeri ( S.Moore ) BLBurtt )
  • Dichapetalum dummeri M.B.Moss (1928)
  • Diplachne dummeri Stapf & CEHubb. (1927)
  • Dirichletia duemmeri Wernham (1917)
  • Hypericum × dummeri N.Robson (1985) hybrids ( Hypericum calycinum L. × Hypericum forrestii ( Chittend. ) N.Robson )
  • Marasmodes dummeri bolus ex Hutch. (1916)
  • Oldenlandia duemmeri (S.Moore) (1916)
  • Orbea dummeri ( NEBr. ) Bruyns (2000) (synonyms: Stapelia dummeri N.E.Br. , Angolluma dummeri ( NEBr. ) Plowes , Caralluma dummeri (NEBr.) ACWhite & B.Sloane , Pachycymbium dummeri ( NEBr. ) MGGilbert )
  • Polystachya duemmeriana Kraenzl. (1929)
  • Sesbania dummeri E.Phillips & Hutch. (1921)
  • Swertia duemmeriana T.CEFr. (1923)
  • Vernonia duemmeri S. Moore (1914)

The Kew Guild, an association of Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) staff, donated the Dümmer Memorial Prize , an annual award for students who showcase the best collection of British plants.

literature

  • HF Glen, G. Germishuizen: Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa , 2nd Edition, Strelitza No. 26, 2010, pp. 157-158.
  • Ray Desmond: Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists. Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters, and Garden Designers. Revised and completely updated edition. Taylor & Francis et al., London 1994, ISBN 0-85066-843-3 , p. 220.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James J. Hayden: Letter from the Administrator General of the High Court in Entebbe / Uganda dated May 29, 1923 to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . online at JSTOR Global Plants
  2. ^ Ray Desmond: Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists. Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters, and Garden Designers. Revised and completely updated edition. Taylor & Francis et al. a., London 1994, ISBN 0-85066-843-3 , p. 220.
  3. ↑ HF Glen, G. Germishuizen: Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa, 2nd edition, Strelitza No. 26, 2010, pp. 157-158.
personal data
SURNAME Dumber, Richard Arnold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African botanist
DATE OF BIRTH 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town , Cape Colony
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1922
Place of death Uganda