Donald Edward Culwell

Posted on by Carol Ann McCormick

( b. 11 January 1942 )

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) at least 150 vascular specimens collected by Donald E. Culwell; he is the primary collector for 56 of them, and an associated collector for 97.  Most are from North Carolina, but specimens from South Carolina and Arkansas are also present.  As NCU’s collections continue to be cataloged, more specimens deposited by Culwell will likely be found.  Donald Culwell’s spouse, Deborah McBroom Culwell, was a frequent co-collector.  Other frequent co-collectors included Dr. A. E. Radford and fellow graduate students John R. Bozeman, Stephen A. Spongberg, and John F. Logue.1

Other herbaria curating Culwell’s specimens include the James F. Matthews Center for Biodiversity Studies Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation Herbarium (UNCC — vascular plants). University of Central Arkansas in Conway (UCAC — vascular plants), Hendrix College, Arkansas (HXC — algae), Purdue University (PUR — bryophytes & fungi).1,2,3,4

Donald Culwell was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in De Soto, Missouri.  He earned his B.S. degree from Southeast Missouri State University in 1964, M.A. in botany from Indiana University in 1966, and Ph.D. in botany/plant taxonomy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The title of his 1970 doctoral thesis was, “A taxonomic study of the section Hypericum in the eastern United States.”5

Donald Edward Culwell earned his doctorate at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1970. Undated photograph courtesy of the South Fork Nature Center

Dr. Culwell was a professor at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway for 37 years (1970-2007).  In addition to his teaching duties he was curator of the Herbarium (UCAC) and director of the Jewel E. Moore University of Central Arkansas Nature Reserve. He was the founding president of the Arkansas Native Plant Society.  He is on the Board of the Gates Rogers Foundation in Clinton, Arkansas, which owns the South Fork Native Plant Preserve, and is a member of the Arkansas Vascular Flora Committee.5

Dr. Culwell’s professional papers are curated by the Archives of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.6

PUBLICATIONS:

Culwell, D.E., 1994. Large population of Pilularia americana A. Br. in Arkansas. American Fern Journal, 84(4), pp.133-133.

Culwell, D.E., 1991. Vascular flora of Perry County, Arkansas; A progress report. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, 45(1), pp.121-121.

Culwell, D.E., 1987. New county records of Arkansas vascular flora from the University of Central Arkansas Herbarium. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, 41(1), pp.102-102.

Culwell, D.E. and Wright, R., 1983. Prairie phenology and seed germination. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, 37(1), pp.80-81.

Wright, R.D. and Culwell, D.E., 1982. Early Stages of Prairie Restoration on a 1.5 Hectare Field in Faulkner County, Arkansas. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, 36(1), pp.80-81.

Culwell, D.E., 1981. Interspecific hybridization between Hypericum graveolens and H. mitchellianum. Castanea, pp.323-333.

Culwell, D.E., 1980. Remnant prairie in Faulkner County, Arkansas?. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, 34(1), pp.107-108.

Culwell, D.E., 1970. A taxonomic study of the section Hypericum in the eastern United States.  Ph.D. Thesis, Botany Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

SOURCES:

1. SERNEC Data Portal. 2024. http//:sernecportal.org/index.php. Accessed on June 28.
2. Macroalgal Herbarium Portal. 2024. https://macroalgae.org/portal/ . Accessed on June 28.
3. Consortium of Bryophyte Herbaria. 2024. https://bryophyteportal.org/portal/ . Accessed on June 28.
4. MyCoPortal . 2024. http://www.mycoportal.org/portal/index.php. Accessed on June 28.
5. Baker, Brent (2007)  Dr. Don Culwell retires.  Claytonia:  Newsletter of the Arkansas Native Plant Society.  27(2):  3.
6. M13-05:  Dr. Donald E. Culwell Collection.  Archives, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas.  http://uca.edu/archives/m13-05-dr-donald-e-culwell-collection/  accessed on 19 March 2018.