Elsie Quarterman (November 28, 1910 – June 9, 2014) was a prominent plant ecologist. She was a Professor Emerita at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

. Quarterman was born on November 28, 1910 in

Valdosta, Georgia Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, Lowndes County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Valdosta is the principal city of the Valdosta Metr ...

. She earned a B.A. from Georgia State Women's College (now

Valdosta State University Valdosta State University (VSU or Valdosta State) is a public university in Valdosta, Georgia. It is one of the four comprehensive universities in the University System of Georgia. , VSU had over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students. VSU a ...

) in 1932 and earned an M.A. in botany from Duke University in 1943. She completed her PhD at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1949 with Henry J. Oosting. During her graduate work and afterward, she also collaborated extensively with Catherine Keever. Quarterman is best known for her work on the ecology of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

cedar glade A calcareous glade is a type of ecological community that is found in the central Eastern United States. Calcareous glades occur where bedrock such as limestone occurs near or at the surface, and have very shallow and little soil development. Du ...

s. These herb-dominated plant communities on the shallow soils of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

s are globally rare habitats and contain many

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

plant species. She is also credited with rediscovering the native Tennessee coneflower, ''

Echinacea tennesseensis ''Echinacea tennesseensis'', also known as the Tennessee coneflower or Tennessee purple coneflower, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, endemic to the cedar glades of the central portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Description '' ...

'', which was thought to be extinct, in 1969. Conservation efforts for the coneflower were successful, and it was delisted as an endangered species in 2011. She supervised seven doctoral students, including Stewart Ware, a plant ecologist at the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

, and Carol and Jerry Baskin, professors at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

Death

She died on June 9, 2014, aged 103.

Honors

Quarterman became the first woman Department Chair at Vanderbilt when she chaired the Biology Department in 1964. The Tennessee Academy of Science honored Quarterman with the 2003 Distinguished College/University Scientist Award. The Southeastern Chapter of the

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

gives an annual Quarterman-Keever Award to the best student poster in ecology. The Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade, a natural area that is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Percy Priest Reservoir and Wildlife Management Area near La Vergne, Tennessee, is named in her honor. In 2008, an annual spring wildflower event at

Cedars of Lebanon State Park Cedars of Lebanon State Park is a state park in Wilson County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It consists of situated amidst the Cedars of Lebanon State Forest. The park and forest are approximately south of Lebanon, Tennessee. ...

, celebrated annually for over 30 years, was renamed the Elsie Quarterman Wildflower Weekend.Wildflower Weekend honors Quarterman
tennessean.com; accessed December 11, 2016.

Selected works

*Quarterman, Elsie. 1950. ''Major plant communities of Tennessee cedar glades.'' Ecology 31: 234–254. *Quarterman, Elsie. 1957. ''Early Plant Succession on Abandoned Cropland in the Central Basin of Tennessee.'' Ecology 38: 300-309. *Quarterman, Elsie, and Catherine Keever. 1962. ''Southern mixed hardwood forest: climax in the southeastern Coastal Plain.'' Ecological Monographs 32: 167–185. *Quarterman, Elsie, Barbara Holman Turner, and Thomas E. Hemmerly. 1972. ''Analysis of virgin mixed mesophytic forests in Savage Gulf, Tennessee.'' Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 99: 228-232. *Quarterman, Elsie and Richard L. Powell. 1978. ''Potential ecological/geological natural landmarks on the interior low plateaus.'' National Park Service. Interagency Resource Management Division.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quarterman, Elsie 1910 births 2014 deaths American centenarians American ecologists Women ecologists Plant ecologists Vanderbilt University faculty People from Valdosta, Georgia Valdosta State University alumni Duke University alumni Place of death missing American nature writers Women centenarians