Elsie Maud Wakefield,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(3 July 1886 – 17 June 1972) was an English

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, 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 in Munich, 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 George Edward Massee (20 December 1845 – 16 February 1917) was an English mycologist, plant pathologist, and botanist. Background and education George Massee was born in Scampston, East Riding of Yorkshire, the son of a farmer. He was educate ...

, head of mycology and cryptogams at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 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. 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 joined her as an assistant in 1944, becoming head of mycology on her retirement. Elsie Wakefield was elected President of the British Mycological Society in 1929. She was awarded an

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 ''Wakefieldia'' is a genus of two species of fungi, generally thought to belong in the family Boletaceae, but recent molecular study has shown that ''Wakefieldia macrospora'' is in fact not related to Boletales and belongs to family Hymenogastrace ...

'' and ''

Wakefieldiomyces ''Wakefieldiomyces'' is a genus of fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms a ...

'' 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