Delzie Demaree (15 September 1889 – 2 July 1987) was an American

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, and

plant collector Plant collecting is the acquisition of plant specimens for the purposes of research, cultivation, or as a hobby. Plant specimens may be kept alive, but are more commonly dried and pressed to preserve the quality of the specimen. Plant collecting i ...

. His place of death is reported as Bonham, Arkansas or Texas.

Life

Demaree was born in Benham, in south-eastern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. He attended the Central Normal College in Danville before serving as a member of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

between 1917 and 1919. Demaree completed a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree majoring in botany in 1920. He started to concentrate on collecting botanical specimens in 1922, while teaching at

Hendrix College Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Approximately 1,000 students are enrolled, mostly undergraduates. While affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the college offers a secular curriculum and has a stude ...

Arkansas. Delzie completed his PhD at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1932 and continued to teach at various institutions, including Arkansas Agricultural and Mechanical College, the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

Published major works

* Demaree, D. 1932. Plant responses to sawdust. ''Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci.'' 51:125-6. * Demaree, D. 1932. Submerging experiments with ''Taxodium''. ''Ecology.'' 12:258-262. * Demaree, D. 1941. Noteworthy Arkansas plants. I. ''Proc. Ark. Acad.'' 1: 17–19. * Demaree, D. 1943. A catalogue of the vascular plants of Arkansas. ''Taxodium'' 1(1):1-88. * W. Carl Taylor and D. Demaree. 1979. Annotated list of the ferns and fern allies of Arkansas. ''Rhodora'' 81 (828) : 503–548.

Legacy

The following plants, have been named in his honour:

Vascular plants

* ''Carya'' × ''demareei'' E.J.Palmer * ''Coreopsis grandiflora f. demareei'' Sherff * ''Draba corrugata var. demareei'' (Wiggins) C.L.Hitchc., and synonym ''Draba demareei'' Wiggins. * ''Gaura demareei'' P.H.Raven & D.P.Greg. * ''Oenothera demareei'' (P.H.Raven & D.P.Greg.) W.L.Wagner & Hoch * ''Rosa demareei'' E.J.Palmer, a synonym of Rosa woodsii Lindl. * ''Verbena demareei'' Moldenke, a synonym of Verbena bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida.

Botanical collections

The bulk of Demaree's plant collections (approximately 50,000 specimens) were held by the

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

herbarium, out of the over 75,000 collection numbers that he recorded. Smaller collections are held in the United States including the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

herbaria, and overseas including at the

National Herbarium of Victoria The National Herbarium of Victoria ( Index Herbariorum code: MEL) is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known a ...

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanical garden, botanic gardens across two sites–Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Cranbourne. Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was rese ...

, the

National Herbarium of New South Wales The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,Thiers, B. ...

, and the

Australian National Herbarium The Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) is a heritage-listed botanical garden located in , Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Established in 1949, the Gardens is administered by the Australian Government's Departme ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demaree, Delzie 1889 births 1987 deaths 20th-century American botanists Plant collectors 20th-century naturalists