Elsie Maud Wakefield,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(3 July 1886 – 17 June 1972) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

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 ...

and

plant pathologist 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 ...

Background and education

She was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, the daughter of a science teacher. She was educated at

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

High School for Girls and then went to

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

, where she received a first class honours degree in botany.

Career in mycology

After completing her degree, Wakefield was awarded a Gilchrist scholarship and worked with Prof.

Karl von Tubeuf Carl or Karl von Tubeuf FLS HFRSE (20 January 1862, in Amorbach, Kingdom of Bavaria – 8 February 1941, in Munich, Germany) was a German forestry scientist, mycologist and plant pathologist. He introduced both the term biological control a ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, where she undertook cultural studies on the larger fungi, publishing her first paper there, in German. On her return in 1910, she became assistant to George Massee, head of mycology and

cryptogams A cryptogam (scientific name ''Cryptogamae'') is a plant, in the broad sense of the word, or a plant-like organism that share similar characteristics, such as being Multicellular organism, multicellular, Photosynthesis, photosynthetic, and pr ...

at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

. On his retirement in 1915, she took over his position as head of mycology. In 1920, she took advantage of a travelling scholarship from Somerville College to spend six months working as a mycologist in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. Subsequently, she remained at Kew until her retirement in 1951, working on British and tropical fungi, with a particular interest in corticioid and tomentelloid species. She was a specialist in

Basidiomycota Basidiomycota () is one of two large divisions that, together with the Ascomycota, constitute the subkingdom Dikarya (often referred to as the "higher fungi") within the kingdom Fungi. Members are known as basidiomycetes. More specifically, Basi ...

and recognised internationally for knowledge of the

Aphyllophorales The Aphyllophorales is an obsolete order of fungi in the Basidiomycota. The order is entirely artificial, bringing together a miscellany of species now grouped among the clavarioid fungi, corticioid fungi, cyphelloid fungi, hydnoid fungi, and por ...

. During this time, she also published several papers on plant pathology. R.W.G. Dennis joined her as an assistant in 1944, becoming head of mycology on her retirement. Elsie Wakefield was elected President of the

British Mycological Society The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi. Formation The British Mycological Society (BMS) was formed by the combined efforts of two local societies: the Woolhope Naturalists' Fiel ...

in 1929. She was awarded an

in 1950. During her career, she published almost 100 papers on fungi and plant pathology, together with two popular field guides to the larger British fungi. She described many new species, from Britain and overseas. The fungal genera '' Wakefieldia'' and '' Wakefieldiomyces'' are named after her, as are the species ''Aleurodiscus wakefieldiae'', ''Amaurodon wakefieldiae'', ''Brachysporium wakefieldiae'', ''Crepidotus wakefieldiae'', ''Hypochnicium wakefieldiae'', ''Pneumocystis wakefieldiae'', ''Poria wakefieldiae'', ''Postia wakefieldiae'' and ''Thelephora wakefieldiae''.http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/Names.asp Index Fungorum Wakefield is regarded as being "one of the most influential British mycologists of her generation."

Selected publications

*Wakefield, E M. (1912) . Nigerian Fungi. ''Kew bulletin of miscellaneous information'' 1912: I4I -I44 *Cotton, A. D. & Wakefield, E.M. (1919). A revision of the British ''Clavariae''. ''Transactions of the British Mycological Society'' 6: 164-198 *Wakefield, E.M. (1921). Mosaic diseases of plants. ''West Indian Bulletin'' 18: 197-206 *Buddin, W. & Wakefield, E.M. (1927). Studies on ''Rhizoctonia crocorum'' and ''Helicobasidium purpureum''. ''Transactions of the British Mycological Society'' 12: 116-140 *Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. (1945) ''Bulletin 23: Edible and poisonous fungi''. Sixth edition. HMSO *Wakefield, E.M. & Dennis, R.W.G. (1950) ''Common British fungi''. London: Gawthorn *Wakefield, E.M. (1954). ''The observers' book of common fungi''. London : Warne *Wakefield, E.M. (1969). ''Tomentelloideae'' in the British Isles. ''Transactions of the British Mycological Society'' 53: 161-206.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wakefield, Elsie Maud English mycologists British Mycological Society 1886 births 1972 deaths Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Women mycologists Botanists active in Kew Gardens