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Arthur Anselm Pearson | |
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 Arthur Anselm Pearson, 1913 | |
| Born | (1874-04-12)12 April 1874 |
| Died | 12 March 1954(1954-03-12) (aged 79) |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Contributions totaxonomicmycology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mycology |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | A.Pearson |
Arthur Anselm Pearson (12 April 1874 – 13 March 1954) was an Englishmycologist. He often published under the nameA. A. Pearson.The standardauthor abbreviationA.Pearson is used to indicate this person as the author whenciting abotanical name.[1]
Pearson was born in London, but educated in Belgium. After leaving school he worked as a seaman before joining the firm of British Belting & Asbestos Ltd inYorkshire, where he spent the rest of his working career, eventually becoming chairman of the firm. He had an interest in music, especiallymadrigals, folk song, and folk dancing, joining theEnglish Folk Dance Society in 1924 and helping with the publication of the Folksong Index.
Around 1910 Pearson began to research the larger fungi, encouraged byJohn Ramsbottom,mycologist at theNatural History Museum. His initial papers, co-authored byE. M. Wakefield, were on Britishcorticioid fungi andheterobasidiomycetes, but he subsequently developed an expertise in thetaxonomy ofagarics, publishing a series of papers on this group of fungi from 1919 to 1952. In 1948 he produced a checklist of British species, co-authored with DrR. W. G. Dennis of theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Pearson spoke several European languages, collected fungi in Spain and Portugal (on which he wrote brief papers), was an active member of theSociété mycologique de France, and was credited with introducing new, continental ideas on modern agaric taxonomy into Britain. In 1948 he was invited to survey fungi in South Africa, publishing a number of new species as a result. His last works were a series of keys to British agaric genera, several of which were published posthumously by his friend and fellow mycologistP. D. Orton.
Pearson was elected president of theBritish Mycological Society in 1931 and again in 1952. He was also president of theYorkshire Naturalists' Union in 1946 and a fellow of theLinnean Society.[2] He described several new species of fungi and at least eight species of fungi are named after him, includingCortinarius pearsonii,Paullicorticium pearsonii, andSquamanita pearsonii.[3]
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