Otto Degener (May 13, 1899 – January 16, 1988) was a botanist and conservationist who specialized in identifying plants of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

Biography

Degener was born May 13, 1899 in

East Orange East Orange is a city in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was the state's 20th most-populous municipality in 2010, after having been the state's 14th most-po ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Degener graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

). Intending to spend a year as a tourist, he arrived in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

but decided to stay. He received his MA from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1922 and his PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He taught Botany at the University of Hawaii from 1925 to 1927, and was the first naturalist for what are now

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

and Haleakala National Park. In 1932, Degener started the first book on Hawaiian plants published since that of

William Hillebrand Wilhelm or William Hillebrand (November 13, 1821 – July 13, 1886) was a German physician. He practiced medicine in several different countries, including for over 20 years in the Hawaiian islands. In 1850, Hillebrand lived at what is now Fost ...

in 1888. It was titled ''Flora Hawaiiensis'', and published in several volumes over his lifetime. On January 10, 1953 he married the botanist Isa Irmgard Hansen, whom he met in Berlin in 1952. They collected plants together in the Hawaiian archipelago. After 1956 Isa Degener was a coauthor for ''Flora Hawaiiensis''. Amy B. H. Greenwell assisted in some of the volumes, and left her property as a botanical garden. He collected over 36,000 different species and preserved some 900 threatened and endangered plants. His specimens were left to 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, ...

. Degener was guest botanist on the second "Cheng Ho" expedition, which lasted from 1940 to 1941 and was sponsored by Anne Mills Archbold. During about eight months he collected over 2,000 specimens from Fijian plants, which were sent to Albert Charles Smith and other specialists in the United States. In 1949 Degener published a book describing his travels and experiences in the Fiji Islands. The review refers to "Mrs. Anne Archbold" — this is wrong — she divorced Armar Dayrolles Saunderson in 1922 — her name was never "Mrs. Archbold". The tree ''

Degeneria vitiensis ''Degeneria vitiensis'' is a flowering tree found on Viti Levu in Fiji. It is relatively common plant and is used as timber. It has been found in upland forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of fo ...

'', which he discovered in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

in 1941, is named after him. He died January 16, 1988 in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. Otto and Isa Degener were in Edinburgh in August 1964 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 ...

. They were commended by the Hawaiian Senate for their conservation work. Many of the plants collected by Otto Degener belong to species that are now extinct.

References

External links

* American botanists Massachusetts Agricultural College alumni University of Hawaiʻi alumni Columbia University alumni People from East Orange, New Jersey 1899 births 1988 deaths {{US-botanist-stub