Isa Irmgard Degener née Hansen (April 27, 1924, Berlin – April 13, 2018,

Waialua, Hawaii Waialua () is a census-designated place and North Shore community in the Waialua District on the island of Oahu, City & County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 4,062. Waialua was one of th ...

) was a German-American plant collector and botanist, specializing in

agrostology Agrostology (from Greek , ''agrōstis'', "type of grass"; and , ''-logia''), sometimes graminology, is the scientific study of the grasses (the family Poaceae, or Gramineae). The grasslike species of the sedge family (Cyperaceae), the rush family ...

. She is known as the coauthor of ''Flora Hawaiiensis''. Isa Hansen studied botany at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

and worked there as an assistant to

Hermann Otto Sleumer Hermann Otto Sleumer (February 21, 1906 in Saarbrücken – October 1, 1993 in Oegstgeest) was a Dutch botanist of German birth. The plant genera ''Sleumerodendron'' Virot (Proteaceae) and ''Sleumeria'' Utteridge, Nagam. & Teo (Icacinaceae The I ...

and

Erich Werdermann Erich Werdermann (2 March 1892 – 20 April 1959) was a German botanist. Born in Berlin, Erich Werdermann was the son of the landowner Carl Werdermann. He first studied in Jena, but then switched to Friedrich Wilhelm University (now called ...

. Later she worked at the Berlin Botanical Garden and specialized in the grasses. In 1952 she met

Otto Degener 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 Massa ...

, who had come to Berlin in search of a grass expert. They began a correspondence and married in January 1953. The couple worked together, collecting botanical specimens in the Hawaiian Islands. They also made an important expedition to Polynesia. Otto and Isa Degener were associated with the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

for many years. The New York Botanical Garden appointed Otto Degener as Collaborator of Hawaiian Botany in 1935 and appointed Isa Degener as Honorary Collaborator of Hawaiian Botany in 1975. In 1964 Otto and Isa Degener went a trip around the world. They toured southern Japan, India, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece. In Europe they visited relatives, studied Hawaiian botanical specimens at Vienna's ''Naturhistorisches Museum'', and went to Edinburgh for the 10th

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the location rotati ...

. Via Portugal and Spain, they went to New York City, where Otto Wegener did some work at the New York Botanical Garden before they returned to their home located on Mokuleia Beach. The New York Botanical Garden has most of their herbarium material. The Hawaiian State Senate commended the Degeners for their conservation work.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Degener, Isa 1924 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists 20th-century German botanists American women botanists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists German emigrants to the United States