(1898 – 1964)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has cataloged approximately 900 vascular plants, a dozen fungal specimens, and one lichen specimen collected by Donald Culross Peattie. Most specimens are from Polk County, North Carolina. As cataloging continues, no doubt more specimens he collected will be found.
Other herbaria curating specimens collected by Peattie include the Field Museum (F: vascular plants, fungi, bryophytes), Harvard University Herbaria(NEBC, AMES & GH: vascular plants; FH: fungi, bryophytes), University of Michigan (MICH: fungi), Duke University (DUKE: lichens), and University of Wisconsin (WIS: lichens), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO: vascular plants), University of South Florida (USF: vascular plants), University of Connecticut (CONN: vascular plants) and University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (UWSP: vascular plants).
Donald Peattie was born to Robert and Elia Peattie in Chicago in 1898. Both his parents were journalists. By 1930, Robert (age 72) and Elia (age 67) had retired and were residents of Tryon in Polk County, North Carolina.
It appears that Donald Peattie’s North Carolina specimens were collected while visiting his parents. 1921 was a particularly botanically productive year for Peattie: he collected specimens April through early September that year. It seems that he visited his parents annually, usually in April, as we have cataloged specimens from that month in 1922, 1923, and 1937. It seems he had several extended visits with his parents in 1926, as we have specimens collected in May, October and November that year. There is a hiatus in his North Carolina specimens, coinciding with his time living abroad. His collecting and visits to North Carolina resumed by 1936 (October and December) and 1937 (April and May).
Donald Peattie married Louise Redfield in 1923. Her childhood home, The Grove, was located in Glenview, Illinois. The Grove and its 124 surrounding acres are now owned by the Glenview Park District, and is a National Historic Landmark.
From 1928 to 1933, the Peatties and their three sons lived in France. The family settled at The Grove upon their return to the United States. Donald Peattie achieved literary and financial success with the 1935 publication of An Almanac for Moderns, a collection of his observations of the natural world around the Grove.
Louise and Donald Peattie moved to Santa Barbara, California, and it was there that he wrote A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America (1950) and A Natural History of Western Trees (1953).
Selected bibliography (with special attention to those pertaining to North and South Carolina):
Peattie, Donald Culross (1927) Trillium in North and South Carolina: A Critical Systematic Reconnaissance. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 42: 193-206.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1928) Flora of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina, in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part I. Introduction: Soils, Cilmate, Etc., Ferns and Conifers (Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae). Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 44(1): 95-125.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1929) Flora of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina, in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part II. Cat-tail Family to Orchid Family (Typhaceae to Orchidaceae) and Part III. Willow Family to Rose Family (Salicaceae to Rosaceae). Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 44(2): 141-229.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1929) Flora of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina, in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part IV. Mimosa Family to Dogwood Family (Mimosaceae to Cornaceae). Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 45(1): 59-100.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1930) Flora of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously in Polk County, North Carolina, and Adjacent Parts of South Carolina, in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part V: Wintergreen Family to Lobelia Family (Pyrolaceae to Lobeliaceae). Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 45(2): 245-290.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1931) Flora of the Tryon Region: An Annotated List of the Plants Growing Spontaneously in Polk County, North Carolina, ad Adjacent Parts of South Carolina, in Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Part VI: Daisy Family (Compositae). List of New Names Pubished. Errata. Summary. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 56(2): 129-160.
Peattie, Donald Culross (ca. 1930) Natural History of Pearson’s Falls. Garden Club of Tryon, North Carolina.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1937) Additions, Corrections, and Deletions for the Flora of the Tryon Region. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 53: 311-323.
Peattie, Donald Culross (1946) The use — and uselessness — of local floras. Castanea 11(2): 63-65.
Sources:
Peter Friederici (2000) Donald Culross Peattie: Remembering an Early Prophet in Chicago Wilderness. Chicago Wilderness Magazine, Fall 2000. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.chicagowilderness.org/resource/collection/0625B160-07C5-482A-8BDF-D86381B9FC77/2000-Fall.pdf