| Elsie Maud Wakefield | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 3, 1886 Birmingham |
| Died | June 17, 1972 (aged 85) |
| Residence | UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Mycology |
| Known for | Contributions to taxonomic mycology and plant pathology |
| Author abbreviation (botany) | Wakef. |
Elsie Maud Wakefield (3 July 1886 - 17 June 1972) was an English mycologist and plant pathologist.
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Miss Wakefield was born in Birmingham, the daughter of a science teacher. She was educated at Swansea High School for Girls and Somerville College, Oxford, where she received a first class honours degree in botany.
After completing her degree, Miss Wakefield worked with Prof. Karl von Tubeuf in Munich, 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 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. On his retirement in 1915, she took over his position as head of mycology.
In 1920, she took advantage of a travelling scholarship to spend six months working as a mycologist in the West Indies. 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. During this time, she also published several papers on plant pathology. Dr 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 in 1929. She was awarded an OBE in 1950. [1][2]
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, Poria wakefieldiae, and Postia wakefieldiae.[3]