Gordon Herriot Cunningham,

CBE 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 ...

, FRS (27 August 1892 – 18 July 1962) was the first New Zealand-based mycologist and plant pathologist. In 1936 he was appointed the first director of the

DSIR Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR was the name of several British Empire organisations founded after the 1923 Imperial Conference to foster intra-Empire trade and development. * Department of Scientific and Industria ...

Plant Diseases Division. Cunningham established the New Zealand Fungal Herbarium, and he published extensively on

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of many fungal groups. He is regarded as the 'Father' of New Zealand mycology.1966 Encyclopedia of New Zealand
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Biography

In his life, he was a boxer, motorcyclist, gold prospector, farmer, horticulturist, forestry worker, and Gallipoli veteran. Following this colourful early life, ‘G.H. Cunn.’ joined the Biological Laboratory staff at the Department of Agriculture in 1919 as a mycologist, and began a systematic survey of plant diseases in New Zealand. He also began his work classifying fungi. In 1925, he published the first New Zealand work on plant diseases, ''Fungus Diseases of Fruit Trees in New Zealand''. When the Biological Laboratory was moved from Wellington to Palmerston North in 1928 to become the Plant Research Station, Cunningham became the head of a mycology laboratory. The Plant Research Station disbanded in 1936, and Cunningham become the director of the

Plant Diseases Division. Cunningham produced definitive monographs of New Zealand

Gasteromycetes The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were formerly placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr. (literally "stomach fungi"), or the equally obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce spores insi ...

(

puffballs Puffballs are a type of fungus featuring a ball-shaped fruit body that bursts on impact, releasing a cloud of dust-like spores when mature. Puffballs belong to the division Basidiomycota and encompass several genera, including ''Calvatia'', '' ...

Polyporaceae The Polyporaceae are a family of poroid fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota. The flesh of their fruit bodies varies from soft (as in the case of the dryad's saddle illustrated) to very tough. Most members of this family have their hymeniu ...

(pore fungi), Thelephoraceae (crust fungi), and Uredinales (

rust fungi Rusts are plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi of the order Pucciniales (previously known as Uredinales). An estimated 168 rust genera and approximately 7,000 species, more than half of which belong to the genus ''Puccinia'', are currently a ...

). He made major contributions to plant pathology in New Zealand, especially with therapeutics and naming of pathogens. In the 1949 King's Birthday Honours, Cunningham was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire 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 ...

for services in the field of plant research and plant diseases. In 2004,

Landcare Research Landcare may refer to: * Australian Landcare Council, a now superseded Australian government body * Landcare in Australia, umbrella approach promoting land protection in Australia * Landcare Research, New Zealand *The Landcare movement in Australi ...

named the rooms hosting the New Zealand Fungal Herbarium at its Auckland site the GH Cunningham Mycology Suite in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Gordon Herriot 1892 births 1962 deaths New Zealand Fellows of the Royal Society New Zealand biologists New Zealand farmers New Zealand phytopathologists New Zealand horticulturists New Zealand mycologists New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century New Zealand scientists 20th-century biologists 20th-century agronomists