Lewis Edgar Wehmeyer

Lewis Edgar Wehmeyer (January 1, 1897, Quincy, Illinois – September 11, 1971, Ann Arbor, Michigan) was an American botanist and mycologist. He gained an international reputation as an expert on the genera Pleospora and Pyrenophora.^[1]

Biography

After graduating in 1914 from Quincy High School,^[2][1] Lewis E. Wehmeyer matriculated in 1916 at the University of Michigan.^[3] His academic education was delayed by a year spent in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during WW I.^[2] At the University of Michigan he graduated with a B.S. in forestry in 1921 and then matriculated in the department of botany. He held the Emmac J. Cole Fellowship for three years and graduated in 1925 with a Ph.D.^[3] His thesis Biologic and phylogenetic study of the stromatic Sphaeriales was supervised by Calvin Henry Kauffman (1869–1931)^[4] As a postdoc Wehmeyer held a National Research Council Fellowship at Harvard University for three years.^[3] As a postdoc he collected fungi in Nova Scotia^[2][1] and in September 1927 in Truro, Nova Scotia married Florence Elaine Prince (called Elaine Prince).^[3] She was born in Truro on 22 March 1903.^[5]

At the University of Michigan, Wehmeyer was an instructor from 1928 to 1931, an assistant professor from 1931 to 1937, an associate professor from 1937 to 1947, and a full professor from 1947^[6] to 1968, when he retired as professor emeritus.^[3] He collected many specimens of Pleospora in Wyoming. He was a consultant for mycological specialists in Argentina, Sweden, England, and Canada.^[2] His most important work is perhaps his 4th book A world monograph of the genus Pleospora and its segregates, based upon his collection of about 1,200 specimens, of which about 400 are type specimens.^[3]

He was elected in 1931 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.^[7]

In 1981, a bequest was made in the name of Lewis E. Wehmeyer and Elaine Prince Wehmeyer (1903-1979)^[8] for an endowment of a professorial chair in mycology at the University of Michigan.^[9] The genus Wehmeyera is named in his honor.^[10]

Selected publications

• Wehmeyer, Lewis E. (1923). "The imperfect stage of some higher Pyrenomycetes obtained in culture". Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters (1923 Meeting). 3: 245–266.
• —— (1926). "A Biologic and Phylogenetic Study of the Stromatic Sphaeriales". American Journal of Botany. 13 (10): 575–645. Bibcode:1926AmJB...13..575W. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1926.tb05903.x. JSTOR 2435473.
• —— (1933). "The British species of the genus Diaporthe Nits. and its segregates" (PDF). Trans Br Mycol Soc. 17 (4): 237–295. doi:10.1016/S0007-1536(33)80010-6.
• —— (1946). "Studies on Some Fungi from Northwestern Wyoming. II. Fungi Imperfecti". Mycologia. 38 (3): 306–330. doi:10.1080/00275514.1946.12024060.
• —— (1947). "Studies on Some Fungi from Northwestern Wyoming. IV. Miscellaneous". Mycologia. 39 (4): 463–478. doi:10.1080/00275514.1947.12017628.
• —— (1954). "Perithecial Development in Pleospora trichostoma". Botanical Gazette. 115 (4): 297–310. doi:10.1086/335829. S2CID 86793733.
• —— (1963). "Some Himalayan Ascomycetes of the Punjab and Kashmir". Mycologia. 55 (3): 309–336. doi:10.1080/00275514.1963.12018026.
• —— (1964). "Some Fungi Imperfecti of the Punjab and Kashmir". Mycologia. 56: 29–52. doi:10.1080/00275514.1964.12018080.

Books and monographs

• Wehmeyer, Lewis E. (1933). The genus Diaporthe Nitschke and its segregates. University of Michigan studies. Scientific series. Vol. IX. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. LCCN 34003518. OCLC 10373481.
  • 2021 reprint. Creative Media Partners, LLC. 9 September 2021. ISBN 978-1013966910.
• —— (1941). A revision of Melanconis, Pseudovalsa, Prosthecium, and Titania. University of Michigan studies. Scientific series, vol. XIV. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. LCCN 41052932. OCLC 4736127.
  • A revision of Melanconis, Pseudovalsa, Prosthecium, and Titania. Bibliotheca Mycologica, Band 41. Lehre, Germany: J. Cramer. 1973. LCCN 74181761; Reprint of the 1941 edition published by the University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• —— (1950). The fungi of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Ottawa: National Research Council of Canada. doi:10.4224/21273347. LCCN 58048188.^[12]
• —— (1961). A world monograph of the genus Pleospora and its segregates. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. LCCN 61063564.
  • Wehmeyer, Lewis Edgar (20 April 2013). 2013 reprint. Literary Licensing, LLC. ISBN 978-1258680824.
• —— (1975). The Pyrenomycetous fungi. Lehre, Germany: J. Cramer for the New York Botanical Garden, in collaboration with the Mycological Society of America. ISBN 9783768209670; edited by Richard T. Hanlin from posthumous papers of Lewis E. Wehmeyer.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) (Pyrenomycete is a synonym for sordariomycete, defined as any fungus belonging to the class Sordariomycetes.)

See also

• Sarcodon stereosarcinon