Otto Degener

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Otto Degener (May 13, 1899 – January 16, 1988) was a botanist and conservationist who specialized in identifying plants of the Hawaiian Islands.

Biography

Degener was born May 13, 1899, in

East Orange, New Jersey. Degener graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now University of Massachusetts Amherst). Intending to spend a year as a tourist, he arrived in Hawaii but decided to stay.[1]
He received his MA from the
Haleakala National Park.[2]

In 1932, Degener started the first book on Hawaiian plants published since that of

Amy B. H. Greenwell assisted in some of the volumes, and left her property as a botanical garden.[6]
He collected over 36,000 different species and preserved some 900 threatened and endangered plants. His specimens were left to the New York Botanical Garden.[2]

Degener was guest botanist on the

second Cheng Ho expedition, which lasted from 1940 to 1941 and was sponsored by Anne Mills Archbold. During about eight months he collected over 2,000 specimens from Fijian plants, which were sent to Albert Charles Smith and other specialists in the United States. In 1949 Degener published a book describing his travels and experiences in the Fiji Islands.[7]
The tree Degeneria vitiensis, which he discovered in Fiji in 1941, is named after him. He died January 16, 1988, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Otto and Isa Degener were in Edinburgh in August 1964 for the 10th International Botanical Congress.[8]

They were commended by the Hawaiian Senate for their conservation work.[3] Many of the plants collected by Otto Degener belong to species that are now extinct.[9]

The standard author abbreviation O.Deg. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[10]

References

  1. hdl:10524/265
    .
  2. ^ a b "Biographical Note". Archives and Manuscript Collections. New York Botanical Garden. January 2000. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Degener, Otto (1899-1988)". JSTOR Global Plants.
  4. ^ "Degener, Isa (Irmgard)". JSTOR Global Plants.
  5. JSTOR 1221781; published online 2019{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link
    )
  6. Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Archived from the original
    on 2010-10-26.
  7. ISSN 0033-5770
    . The review refers to "Mrs. Anne Archbold" — this is wrong — she divorced Armar Dayrolles Saunderson in 1922 — her name was never "Mrs. Archbold".
  8. ^ Proceedings of the Tenth International Botanical Congress, Edinburgh, August 4-11, 1964. 1964. p. 123.
  9. ^ TenBruggencate, Jan (24 January 1988). "Isle botanist recalled as brilliant, opinionated (obituary of Otto Degener)". Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
  10. ^ International Plant Names Index.  O.Deg.

External links


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