Anna Eliza Jenkins (10 September 1886 – 26 November 1972) was an American

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and ...

. She specialized in

phytopathology Plant pathology or phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology involves the study of pathogen identification, disease ...

(plant diseases), particularly the fungi responsible for "spot

anthracnose A plant canker is a small area of dead tissue, which grows slowly, often over years. Some cankers are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately lethal and therefore can have major economic implications for agriculture and horticultur ...

s", including '' Sphaceloma'' and '' Elsinoe''.

Early life

Born on a farm near

Walton, New York Walton is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 5,270 at the 2020 census. The town is in the west-central part of the county and contains the village of Walton. The town claims to be the " Scarecrow Capital of ...

, Jenkins attended a one-room country school before attending Walton High School, from which she graduated in 1907. Leaving home to study at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, Jenkins was influenced and encouraged by the prominent mycologists Herbert Hice Whetzel and Louis Melville Massey. She earned her

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in 1911 and her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

the year following. A

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

followed later in 1927, after further study at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

and graduate work at Cornell.

Career

Jenkins started working with the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

(USDA) in 1912, and spent most of her career there. Her early research involved the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

and life histories of new of little-known fungi of economic importance. Later, she studied fungi causing crop diseases, such as ''

Sclerotinia ''Sclerotinia'' is a genus of fungi in the family Sclerotiniaceae. The widely distributed genus contains 14 species. Taxonomy A number of species previously assigned to ''Sclerotinia'' are now considered to be members of the closely related gen ...

'' on

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

, '' Botryosphaeria'' on

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

, '' Elsinoe'' on

lima bean A lima bean (''Phaseolus lunatus''), also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans. Origin and uses ''Phaseolus lunatus'' is found in Meso- and South America. Tw ...

s, and pathogens of

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

s. Together with Agesilau Antonio Bitancourt she edited the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

series ''Myriangiales selecti exsiccati''.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2025 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.

Works

* *Jenkins, Anna Eliza. "Insects as possible Carriers of the Citrus-scab Fungus." ''Phytopathology'' 20, no. 4 (1930). *Jenkins, Anna Eliza. Transfer of ''Diaporthe umbrina'' to the genus ''Cryptosporella''. 1935. *Massey, Louis Melville, and Anna Eliza Jenkins. "Scab of violet caused by ''Sphaceloma''." (1935). *

Awards, honors, and memberships

Jenkins became a corresponding member of the

Brazilian Academy of Sciences Brazilian commonly refers to: * Brazil, a country * Brazilians, its people * Brazilian Portuguese, its dialect Brazilian may also refer to: * "The Brazilian", a 1986 instrumental music piece by Genesis * Brazilian Café, Baghdad, Iraq (1937) * Bra ...

in 1956. She was awarded the Medal of Merit of Dom João VI in 1959. Fungal

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

named in her honor include '' Stilbocrea jenkiana'', '' Sphaceloma annajenkinsii'', and '' Annajenkinsia''.

References

External links