Elsie Maud Wakefield, OBE (3 July 1886 – 17 June 1972) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

and

plant pathologist Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungus, fung ...

Background and education

She was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, the daughter of a science teacher. She was educated at

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

High School for Girls and then went to

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, where she received a first class honours degree in botany.

Career in mycology

After completing her degree, Wakefield was awarded a Gilchrist scholarship and worked with Prof.

Karl von Tubeuf Carl or Karl von Tubeuf FLS H FRSE (20 January 1862, in Amorbach, Bavaria – 8 February 1941, in Munich, Germany) was a German forestry scientist, mycologist and plant pathologist. He introduced both the term biological control and the ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where she undertook cultural studies on the larger fungi, publishing her first paper there, in German. On her return in 1910, she became assistant to George Massee, head of mycology and

cryptogams A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...

at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

. On his retirement in 1915, she took over his position as head of mycology. In 1920, she took advantage of a travelling scholarship from Somerville College to spend six months working as a mycologist in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. Subsequently, she remained at Kew until her retirement in 1951, working on British and tropical fungi, with a particular interest in corticioid and tomentelloid species. She was a specialist in

Basidiomycota Basidiomycota () is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basi ...

and recognised internationally for knowledge of the

Aphyllophorales The Aphyllophorales is an obsolete order of fungi in the Basidiomycota. The order is entirely artificial, bringing together a miscellany of species now grouped among the clavarioid fungi, corticioid fungi, cyphelloid fungi, hydnoid fungi, and p ...

. During this time, she also published several papers on plant pathology.

R.W.G. Dennis Richard William George Dennis, PhD (13 July 1910 – 7 June 2003), was an English mycologist and plant pathologist. Background and education Dennis was born in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, the son of a schoolmaster. He was educated at Thorn ...

joined her as an assistant in 1944, becoming head of mycology on her retirement. Elsie Wakefield was elected President of the

British Mycological Society The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi. Formation The British Mycological Society (BMS) was formed by the combined efforts of two local societies: the Woolhope Naturalists' Field ...

in 1929. She was awarded an OBE in 1950. During her career, she published almost 100 papers on fungi and plant pathology, together with two popular field guides to the larger British fungi. She described many new species, from Britain and overseas. The fungal genera '' Wakefieldia'' and ''

Wakefieldiomyces ''Wakefieldiomyces'' is a genus of fungi within the Clavicipitaceae The Clavicipitaceae are a family of fungi within the order Hypocreales. A 2008 estimate placed 43 genera in the family, but recent work has increased this number to 97. Phylo ...

'' are named after her, as are the species ''Aleurodiscus wakefieldiae'', ''Amaurodon wakefieldiae'', ''Brachysporium wakefieldiae'', ''Crepidotus wakefieldiae'', ''Hypochnicium wakefieldiae'', ''Pneumocystis wakefieldiae'', ''Poria wakefieldiae'', and ''Postia wakefieldiae''.http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/Names.asp Index Fungorum Wakefield is regarded as being "one of the most influential British mycologists of her generation."

Selected publications

*Wakefield, E M. (1912) . Nigerian Fungi. ''Kew bulletin of miscellaneous information'' 1912: I4I -I44 *Cotton, A. D. & Wakefield, E.M. (1919). A revision of the British ''Clavariae''. ''Transactions of the British Mycological Society'' 6: 164-198 *Wakefield, E.M. (1921). Mosaic diseases of plants. ''West Indian Bulletin'' 18: 197-206 *Buddin, W. & Wakefield, E.M. (1927). Studies on ''Rhizoctonia crocorum'' and ''Helicobasidium purpureum''. ''Transactions of the British Mycological Society'' 12: 116-140 *Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. (1945) ''Bulletin 23: Edible and poisonous fungi''. Sixth edition. HMSO *Wakefield, E.M. & Dennis, R.W.G. (1950) ''Common British fungi''. London: Gawthorn *Wakefield, E.M. (1954). ''The observers' book of common fungi''. London : Warne *Wakefield, E.M. (1969). ''Tomentelloideae'' in the British Isles. ''Transactions of the British Mycological Society'' 53: 161-206.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakefield, Elsie Maud English mycologists British Mycological Society 1886 births 1972 deaths Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Women mycologists Botanists active in Kew Gardens