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 Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, to English store owners of

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

faith. He was educated at

Bootham School Bootham School is a private 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 school was ...

, York. He studied at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. 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 to 1919, 1939 to 1946 and ...

on the Western Front during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, for which he was awarded the

Croix de guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

Career

Having received botanical training, Holttum was given the role of assistant director at the

Singapore Botanical Gardens The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a -year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Th ...

in 1922, with the guidance of

Isaac Henry Burkill Isaac Henry Burkill (18 May 1870 – 8 March 1965) was an English botanist who worked in India and in the Straits Settlements (present day Singapore). He worked primarily in economic botany but published extensively on plant biology, ethno-botany ...

. 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. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

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 o ...

(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 , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...

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 Universiti Malaya (lit 'University of Malaya'; abbreviated UM) is a public university, public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest Malaysian institution of higher education, and was the only university in ...

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 The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

. 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 The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

, such as that of Malayan ferns. In 1975 the

British Pteridological Society The British Pteridological Society is for fern enthusiasts of the British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of G ...

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, an ...

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 ''Holttumia'' is a genus of fungi in the family Xylariaceae. The genus name of ''Holttumia'' is in honour of Richard Eric Holttum (1895–1990), who was an English botanist and author. The genus was circumscribed by Curtis Gates Lloyd Curtis ...

'' was published, which is a genus of

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the family

Xylariaceae The Xylariaceae are a family of mostly small ascomycetous fungi. It is one of the most commonly encountered groups of ascomycetes and is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world. They are typically found on wood, seeds, f ...

. Then published in 1964, '' Rehia'' which is a genus of plants in the

grass family Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

. Then in 1964, '' Holttumochloa'' which is a genus of

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

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

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

. He received many awards, including the Gold Medal of the

American Orchid Society The American Orchid Society (AOS) is a horticultural society for education, conservation, and research of orchids. It was founded in 1921, and has an international membership. It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. It has been called an "indus ...

(1963), the OSSEA Fellowship from the Orchid Society of South East Asia (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 collec ...

(1964).

Death

Spending some time at the

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

to work, Holttum died 18 September 1990 in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, aged 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holttum, Richard Eric 1895 births 1990 deaths British 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