Fritz Hamer

Last updated
Fritz Hamer
BornNovember 22, 1912
Hamburg
DiedJanuary 13, 2004 (91 years old)
Sarasota, Florida
Nationality German
Scientific career
Fields Botanist, teacher
Author abbrev. (botany) Hamer

Fritz Hamer (22 November 1912, Hamburg - 13 January 2004, Sarasota, Florida) was an outstanding German botanist who worked in Central America, specializing in orchids. [1] [2]

Contents

Biography

Hamer received a business education and was employed by a Dutch export company. In 1937 the company sent him to Venezuela; and in 1938 to Guatemala, where he joined World War II. In 1942 he returned to Germany and served in the army during the Russian campaign. In 1948, at the end of the war, he returned to Guatemala and established himself in El Salvador, where he created a company to import and distribute machinery and equipment.

His interest in families of orchids began in 1960 when he saw a specimen of Miltonia , of which he made a beautiful illustration. He then took to the road and began to take photographs, make illustrations, and write descriptions. But he noticed the lack of literature on orchids. In 1925 there were 63 species in 28 genera, described by Standley and S. Calderón, and nothing more. So Hamer, who had already published a number of articles about orchids in his country, prepared The Orchids of El Salvador, which was published in two volumes in 1974 by the Ministry of Education of El Salvador; 279 descriptions and illustrations spp. in 67 genera. Hamer, with no scientific training in natural sciences, received invaluable help from Leslie A. Garay, his mentor and friend. At the beginning the Salvadoran Civil War, Hamer left El Salvador and moved to Florida, where he worked as a scientist at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. In 1981 he published the third volume of The Orchids of El Salvador, with 362 spp. 93 Gros. Salvadoran orchids.

The Missouri Botanical Garden planned to publish the Flora of Nicaragua, with the University of Managua. Hamer asked to be responsible for the study of the family Orchidaceae. Hamer visited the herbaria of Kew and the Field Museum of Chicago by Pan-American Agricultural School of Honduras, Managua, the University of Michigan. In 1982 he published the 7th installment of the 1st series of Icones Plantarum Tropicarum, edited by Dodson, with the first 100 descriptions and illustrations of the orchids of Nicaragua. Hamer published 500 additional plates for Icones. Between 1988 and 1990 they were published in Selbyana Hamer (Vols. 10 and 11) the Orchids of Central America - an Illustrated Field Guide, with all its illustrations of the spp. region, but no descriptions. Then the Flora of Nicaragua was published by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2001, and Hamer, 89 years old, was the author of Chapter Orchidaceae, describing 587 species in 144 genera.

He was married to Hedwig Pfister for 42 years, to whom he dedicated one of the species he discovered: Maxillaria hedwigae (Hamer & Dodson). He had three children, one of whom died in El Salvador in 2003. That tragedy clouded the last months of his life, and he died in Sarasota, Florida, on 13 January 2004.

Honours

Eponymy

The standard author abbreviation Hamer is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The taxonomy of the Orchidaceae (orchid family) has evolved slowly during the last 250 years, starting with Carl Linnaeus who in 1753 recognized eight genera. De Jussieu recognized the Orchidaceae as a separate family in his Genera Plantarum in 1789. Olof Swartz recognized 25 genera in 1800. Louis Claude Richard provided us in 1817 with the descriptive terminology of the orchids. (See External links below). The next step was taken in 1830-1840 by John Lindley, who recognized four subfamilies. He is generally recognized as the father of orchid taxonomy. The next important step was taken by George Bentham with a new classification, recognizing subtribes for the first time. This classification was first presented in a paper that Bentham read to the Royal Society in 1881. Then it was published in 1883 in the final volume of Genera Plantarum. The next great contributors were Pfitzer (1887), Schlechter (1926), Mansfeld (1937), Dressler and Dodson (1960), Garay (1960, 1972), Vermeulen (1966), again Dressler (1981). and Burns-Balogh and Funk (1986). Dressler's 1993 book had considerable influence on later work.

<i>Brassia</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Govenia</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Ponthieva</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Teuscheria</i> Genus of orchids

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<i>Sievekingia</i> Genus of orchids

Sievekingia is a genus of orchid, comprising 20 species found in Central and South America, from Nicaragua east to the Guianas and south to Bolivia.

<i>Beloglottis</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Brassia verrucosa</i> Species of orchid

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<i>Aulosepalum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Aulosepalum is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It consists of 8 species native to Mexico and Central America.

  1. Aulosepalum hemichrea(Lindl.) Garay - Oaxaca, Chiapas, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
  2. Aulosepalum nelsonii(Greenm.) Garay - Michoacán, Oaxaca
  3. Aulosepalum oestlundii(Burns-Bal.) Catling - Guerrero
  4. Aulosepalum pulchrum(Schltr.) Catling - Guatemala and southern Mexico
  5. Aulosepalum pyramidale(Lindl.) M.A.Dix & M.W.Dix - from central Mexico to Costa Rica
  6. Aulosepalum ramentaceum(Lindl.) Garay - Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí
  7. Aulosepalum riodelayense(Burns-Bal.) Salazar - Oaxaca
  8. Aulosepalum tenuiflorum(Greenm.) Garay - Morelos, Guerrero
<i>Triphora</i> (plant) Genus of orchids

Triphora is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is native to South America, Central America, southern Mexico, the West Indies and eastern North America as far north as Ontario. Noddingcaps is a common name for plants in this genus.

  1. Triphora amazonicaSchltr. - Florida, Caribbean, south to Brazil
  2. Triphora carnosula(Rchb.f.) Schltr. - Brazil
  3. Triphora craigheadiiLuer - Florida
  4. Triphora debilis(Schltr.) Schltr. - southern Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama
  5. Triphora duckeiSchltr. - Brazil
  6. Triphora foldatsiiCarnevali - Venezuela
  7. Triphora gentianoides(Sw.) Nutt. ex Ames & Schltr. - Florida, Southern Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bahamas, Greater Antilles
  8. Triphora hassleriana(Cogn. ex Chodat & Hassl.) Schltr. - from Mexico to Argentina
  9. Triphora heringeriPabst - Brazil
  10. Triphora miserrima(Cogn.) Acuña - Cuba, Hispaniola
  11. Triphora nitida(Schltr.) Schltr. - Costa Rica
  12. Triphora pusilla(Rchb.f. & Warm.) Schltr. - Brazil
  13. Triphora ravenii(L.O.Williams) Garay - Costa Rica, Panama
  14. Triphora santamariensisPortalet - Brazil
  15. Triphora surinamensis(Lindl. ex Benth.) Britton - West Indies south to Brazil
  16. Triphora trianthophoros(Sw.) Rydb. Ontario, Eastern United States, much of Mexico
  17. Triphora unifloraA.W.C.Ferreira, Baptista & Pansarin - Brazil
  18. Triphora wagneriSchltr. - from Mexico to Ecuador
  19. Triphora yucatanensisAmes - Florida and the Yucatán Peninsula
<i>Microthelys</i> Genus of orchids

Microthelys is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Its species are native to Mexico, Central America and Ecuador.

  1. Microthelys constricta(Szlach.) Szlach. - central Mexico
  2. Microthelys hintoniorum(Todzia) Szlach., Rutk. & Mytnik - Nuevo León
  3. Microthelys intagana(Dodson & Dressler) Szlach. - Ecuador
  4. Microthelys markowskiana(Szlach.) Szlach. - Oaxaca
  5. Microthelys minutiflora(A.Rich. & Galeotti) Garay - from San Luis Potosí south to Guatemala
  6. Microthelys nutantiflora(Schltr.) Garay - Guatemala, Costa Rica
  7. Microthelys rubrocallosa(B.L.Rob. & Greenm.) Garay - from central Mexico south to Guatemala
<i>Plectrophora</i> Genus of orchids

Plectrophora is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is native to Central and South America.

<i>Sarcoglottis</i> Genus of flowering plants

Sarcoglottis is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is widespread across much of Latin America from Mexico to Argentina, with one species extending northward into Trinidad and the Windward Islands.

Leslie Andrew Garay, born Garay László András, was an American botanist. He was the curator of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded Charles Schweinfurth in 1958. In 1957 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

References

  1. ↑ "Hamer, Fritz". Index of Botanists. Harvard University.
  2. ↑ Ossenbach, Carlos (2005). "Horti Selbyani: Fritz Hamer and the German Tradition of Botany in Mesoamerica". Selbyana . 25 (2): 245–258. JSTOR   41760467.
  3. ↑ International Plant Names Index.  Hamer.

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