Richard Eric Holttum (20 July 189518 September 1990) was an English botanist and writer.

Early life

Holttum was born 20 July 1895 in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, to English store owners of Quaker faith. He was educated at

Bootham School Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19, and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The schoo ...

, York. He studied at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

. He served with the

Friends' Ambulance Unit The Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU) was a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in line with their Peace Testimony. The FAU operated from 1914–1919, 1939–1946 and 19 ...

on the Western Front during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, for which he was awarded the Croix de guerre.

Career

Having received botanical training, Holttum was given the role of assistant director at the Singapore Botanical Gardens in 1922, with the guidance of Isaac Henry Burkill. In Singapore, he performed some exhaustive studies, and was promoted to director in 1925, following the retirement of Burkill. His areas of expertise were the growth and cultivation of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s. He continued working at the Singapore Botanical Gardens even during the Japanese occupation of the country. Holttum and

Corner Corner may refer to: People *Corner (surname) * House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect) Places *Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States *Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia *Corner River, a tributary of ...

(assistant director at the Singapore Botanical Garden) were once detained at the internment camp in Singapore. Dr. Kwan Koriba and Hidezo Tanaka, who took control of the Gardens, pleaded to keep Holttum and

at their posts at the Gardens. The Japanese Emperor Hirohito was an orchid enthusiast, so he granted the plea. This action led to the success of the hybridization of Singapore's national flower. When the war finished, Holttum and

got approved to release Dr. Kwan Koriba from a prisoner camp. Dr. Kwan rejected the offer and chose to stay with his fellow soldiers. Holttum praised his act later. Returning from Great Britain, where he departed to in 1925, Holttum continued his job as the Garden's director, until he moved to the

University of Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

in Singapore to serve as its first Professor of Botany. Holttum penned many books during his tenure at the educational institution, including ''Gardening at the lowlands of the Malays'' (which is credited as the first book on Singaporean gardening) and ''Plant Life in Malaya''. He was also the first head of department for Botany at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore. He founded the Malayan Orchid Society (now Orchid Society of South East Asia) in 1928. He went back to England later in 1954. Holttum's area of interest was

pteridology A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except th ...

, such as that of Malayan ferns. In 1975 the

British Pteridological Society The British Pteridological Society is for fern enthusiasts of the British Isles, and was founded in England in 1891. The origins and early history of the BPS at the time of "Pteridomania Pteridomania or fern fever was a Victorian craze for f ...

dedicated an edition of The Fern Gazette to celebrate his Eightieth birthday, and the

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Biological Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a direct descendant of the oldest biological journal in the world, the ''Transactions of the Linnean Society''. It succeeded the earlier title in 1969. The journal specializes in evolution, and ...

published eight short addresses about his life. The Flora Malesiana Bulletin published his autobiography, a bibliography of his publications, and a list of 27 plants dedicated to him. There are at least 23 species of plant named after him, with epithets of ''holttumii'' or ''holttumianus''. Also in 1924, '' Holttumia'' was published, which 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 are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

in the family Xylariaceae. Then published in 1964, ''

Rehia ''Rehia'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. The only known species is ''Rehia nervata'', native to Brazil ( Amapá, Pará, Maranhão) and to the Guianas ( Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guy ...

'' which is a genus of plants in the grass family. Then in 1964, '' Holttumochloa'' which is a genus of

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

s also in the Poaceae family and native to the hill forests of

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

. He received many awards, including the Gold Medal of the American Orchid Society (1963), and the Linnean Medal from the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

(1964).

Death

Spending some time at the

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

to work, Holttum died 18 September 1990 in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, aged 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holttum, Richard Eric 1895 births 1990 deaths Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) British pteridologists English botanists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Cambridgeshire People educated at Bootham School Administrators in British Malaya Administrators in British Singapore Linnean Medallists