(15 September 1847 – 5 February 1928)5
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) curates a single fungus collected by Flora Wambaugh Patterson: Cyphella cupressi collected “from region of James River near Norfolk, Va.” on 22 October 1906 (NCU-F-0031286). Other herbaria curating specimens collected by Ms. Patterson include the United States National Fungus Collections (BPI), University of Wisconsin, Madison (WIS), University of Tennessee, Knoxville (TENN-F), University of Minnesota (MIN), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MICH), Illinois Natural History Survey (ILLS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (ILL), Florida Museum of Natural History (FLAS), University of Cincinnati (CINC), University of California, Berkeley (UC), University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Arizona, Tucson (ARIZ), San Francisco State University (SFSU), Purdue University (PUL & PUR), New York State Museum (NYS-NYSM), New York Botanical Garden (NY), Miami University (MU), Iowa State University (ISC), Institute of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences of the Estonian University of Life Sciences (TAAM), Harvard University Herbaria (FH), Cornell University (CUP), Washington State University, Pullman (WSP), Canadian National Mycological Herbarium (AAFC:DAOM), Brown University (BRU), and Bishop Museum (BISH-BPBM).1
“In 1896, and for the next 27 years, Patterson worked at the Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C. She began her scientific career out of necessity after her husband became disabled and eventually died leaving her with two young children in a time without a government safety net. Her legacy encompasses systematics research on several groups of plant pathogenic fungi, inspection of agricultural commodities including the famous Japanese cherry trees on the Mall in Washington, DC, and, most significantly, the recognition of the need to build a reference collection of fungi and the addition of over 90,000 specimens to the U.S. National Fungus Collections. Flora Wambaugh Patterson was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1847 where her father was a Methodist minister. She was interested in fungi as a hobby while still a young girl. She studied at Antioch College, earning an A.B. degree in 1865, and later, in 1883, received an A.M. degree from Wesleyan College, Cincinnati. In August, 1869 she married Captain Edwin Patterson and had two sons. A few years later her husband was injured in a steamboat explosion that left him helpless and the family without a breadwinner. For the next ten years until he died, she cared for her husband and their children. After his death, Flora Patterson took up the study of biology at the State University of Iowa where her brother was a professor. In 1893, she moved east and placed her sons in a college preparation school while planning to continue her own studies at Yale University… For the next three years Patterson took courses in botany at Radcliffe College while working as an assistant in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University. At the Gray Herbarium, one of the foremost botanical repositories of the day, she received her training in mycology, plant pathology, and care of the fungal collections. n 1895 Patterson took the Civil Service examination and was appointed Assistant Pathologist in the Section of Vegetable Pathology of the USDA in Washington, DC. Recognizing the importance of the burgeoning USDA fungal collections, Beverly T. Galloway hired both Franklin Sumner Earle and Flora Patterson to assist with the herbarium work. Earle lasted only one year, leaving for Alabama and eventually moving to the newly established New York Botanical Garden. On the other hand, Patterson stayed at the USDA almost three decades during which time she succeeded in increasing the reference specimens in the U.S. National Fungus Collections from 19,000 to 115,000. When the Bureau of Plant Industry was formally established, Galloway became Chief and, soon thereafter, Mrs. Patterson was appointed Mycologist in Charge of Mycological and Pathological Collections, a title that she held until her retirement in 1923…
One of the more memorable episodes in her plant quarantine activities concerned the Japanese flowering cherry trees that were given to the United States as a present from the Mayor of Tokyo. Upon the arrival of 2,000 highly prized plants in January, 1910, the exotic trees were found to be infected with numerous fungi and insects. Realizing the potential danger these organisms posed to U.S. agriculture, Patterson and her colleagues including Nathan Cobb, a nematologist, and J.G. Sanders, an entomologist, took a politically unpopular position and advised that the cherry trees be destroyed. In a letter written by Patterson about the infected trees, she noted that in addition to crown gall “present on 45% of the trees … the girdling of five trees apparently has resulted from the attack of a Pestalozzia sp…It is impossible to decide with the limited time available for research if the Pestalozzia is of an indigenous species.” Despite the passing of almost a century, members of the genus Pestalozzia (now spelled Pestalotia) and its segregate genera are still very difficult to identify to species. The unidentified specimen of Pestalotia sp. from the first set of cherry trees still resides in the U.S. National Fungus Collections. The three USDA scientists who inspected the first shipment of Japanese cherry trees were able to convince the U.S. government of the danger posed by these exotic organisms. The entire lot of trees was burned in a bonfire on the Mall in Washington, D.C. A carefully worded, diplomatic letter was composed and sent to Japan. Eventually a second set of thoroughly fumigated trees was shipped and arrived free of insects and diseases. These new cherry trees still adorn the Tidal Basin in downtown Washington, DC.
The first set of Japanese cherry trees being burned on the mall following the discovery of potentially harmful plant pathogens and insects. Image in Rossman, 2002 and cites the source as Jefferson, R. M., and Fusonie, A. E. 1977. The Japanese flowering cherry trees of Washington, DC; a living symbol of friendship. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4.
Patterson retired at the age of 75 having contributed enormously to the development of the U.S. National Fungus Collections as well as the knowledge of numerous plant pathogenic fungi associated with imported agricultural commodities. Her vigorous activities resulted in a strong mycological tone to the work at the USDA that continues to this day. After retirement she lived with her son in New York City where she died at the age of 80.“2
There was an upside to the destruction of the first shipment of infected cherry trees. “This international incident led to the passing of the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 and to a second shipment of trees. The introduction of cherry trees transformed the National Mall area and played a very important role in protecting American agriculture from the negative impact of insects and plant diseases imported from abroad… Agriculture Secretary James Wilson and his staff used this situation to highlight risks American agriculture from imports. Their scientific evidence reinforced the concerns of individual states, 39 of which had already passed legislation, and which had sought a national plant quarantine law as early as 1898. A result was the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 which went into effect on August 20, 1912. This act established the Federal Horticultural Board and enabled plant quarantines. Following the destruction of the first cherry trees, Japan offered replacements which were fumigated before they were shipped to the United States. The first of these trees were planted by the First Lady and the wife of the Japanese Ambassador. Some 11 years later, Mayor Ozaki of Tokyo and his family came to Washington and visited the grove of cherry trees.”3
“Fungal hitchhikers are now routinely detected and quarantined or destroyed at ports and airports due partly to the protocols [Flora Wambaugh Patterson] helped enact. No public bonfires required.”4
SOURCES:
1. MyCoPortal . 2024. http://www.mycoportal.org/portal/index.php. Accessed on November 01.
2. Rossman, Amy Y. 2002. Flora W. Patterson: The First Woman Mycologist at the USDA. The Plant Health Instructor, volume 2. https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Pages/FloraPatterson.aspx accessed on 1 November 2024.
3. Did You Know… Insect Infestation Initially Derailed Japan’s Cherry Tree Gift to Nation? 2019. U.S. Border & Customs Protection. https://www.cbp.gov/about/history/did-you-know/cherry-tree accessed on 1 November 2024.
4. Maron, Dina Fine. 2024. The Forgotten Fungal Detective: How a pioneer of modern mycology shaped the U.S response to potentially devastating plant diseases. National Geographic 245 (4): 27.