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Illtyd Buller Pole-Evans | |
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| Born | (1879-09-03)3 September 1879 Llanmaes, Wales |
| Died | 16 October 1968(1968-10-16) (aged 89) |
| Alma mater | University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire,Cambridge University |
| Spouse | Mary R.H. Thompson |
| Awards | Order of St Michael and St George |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botanist |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Pole-Evans |
Illtyd Buller Pole-EvansCMG (3 September 1879 – 16 October 1968) was a Welsh-born South African botanist.[1] Sometimes his first name is spelledIltyd.
Pole-Evans was born inLlanmaes in theVale of Glamorgan, the son of an Anglican clergyman, Daniel Evans and Caroline Jane Pole. He was educated at theUniversity College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, receiving aBSc in 1903 and going on toCambridge where he studiedmycology andplant pathology underHarry Marshall WardFRS, obtaining anMA in 1905.
Pole-Evans was appointed as mycologist and plant pathologist, and joinedBurtt Davy in the newly establishedTransvaal Department of Agriculture. Although having the most rudimentary laboratory facilities, Pole-Evans implemented a research program and started producing a steady flow of published work. He assumed charge of the Division of Mycology and Plant Pathology in 1912, which later became part of the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology.
After settling inPretoria, Pole-Evans turned his attention to the rich flora of his adopted country and singled out theAloes for special attention. He amassed a collection of great value and established the plants on the grounds of the Division. Some newAloe species were described by him in theTrans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. of 1915 and 1917.
In 1916 an outbreak ofcitrus canker threatened to bring down the citrus industry in the Transvaal. Pole-Evans orchestrated a drastic program that called for the complete eradication of infected orchards and nurseries. This timely intervention saved the industry.
During his travels throughout southern Africa, he collected photographs and data on the major vegetation types of the region. This resulted in a preliminary account entitled"The Plant Geography of South Africa", in which he recognised 19 botanical regions, each with distinctive ecological characteristics. His classification, with its accompanying 1:3,000,000 vegetation map, remained the standard reference work until replaced byAcocks' system in 1953. He initiated the Botanical Survey Advisory Committee which led to the serial publication of theBotanical Survey Memoirs, first appearing in 1919. He also introduced theFlowering Plants of South Africa in 1920 andBothalia in 1921.
One of his longstanding interests was pasture grasses, and he was instrumental in collecting and introducing many of these to South Africa from various places on the sub-continent. These grasses were grown and tested at thePrinshof and Rietondale Experiment Stations.
In 1930 Pole-Evans accompaniedJohn Hutchinson andJan Smuts on a two-month expedition through Southern and Northern Rhodesia toNyasaland andLake Tanganyika. A more ambitious expedition was undertaken by him in 1938 at the invitation of the Kenyan government. In the company of C. J. J. van Rensburg, anagrostologist, and J. Erens, a plant and seed collector, he set off on a four-month odyssey covering some 20,000 km (12,000 mi). On this trip they travelled throughSouthern Rhodesia andTanganyika toKenya, going as far north as the border withSudan andAbyssinia, returning throughUganda, theRuwenzoris and theBelgian Congo. His account of this expedition was published inBotanical Survey Memoir No. 22 of 1948.
During his career, Pole-Evans collected extensively in southern Africa and covered theBelgian Congo, Kenya,Tanganyika,Northern Rhodesia, theBechuanaland Protectorate,South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. His collections can be found at A, B, BOL, BR, E, EA, GRA, K, L, MO, P, PRE, S, SRGH and US.[clarification needed] This botanist is denoted by theauthor abbreviationPole-Evans whenciting abotanical name.[2][3] His dedication to botany in the service of the Department of Agriculture, set a high standard for a whole generation of South African botanists, inspiring an unparalleled expansion in the country's botanical science. The National Herbarium, which had started with the small collection ofBurtt Davy, grew rapidly with the acquisition of the collections ofErnest Edward Galpin, Anna Dieterlen (1859–1945), Henry George Flanagan (1861–1919),Rudolf Marloth,Alice Pegler (1861–1929), William Tyson (1851–1920) and thebryophytes ofThomas Robertson Sim. Pole-Evans was instrumental in extending the ill-fatedDongola Reserve which had been created in theNorthern Transvaal in the 1920s, and was scrapped by the new Government of 1948. In 1955 he retired toUmtali inRhodesia, where he continued his botanical collecting.
Pole-Evans died in Umtali, Rhodesia, at the age of 89.
He married Mary R.H. ThompsonMSc (London) in 1922, three years after she joined his staff as a mycologist.
Pole-Evans is commemorated by the grass genusPolevansia De Winter, and by numerous specific names such asAloe pole-evansii,Dinteranthus pole-evansii,Gladiolus pole-evansii etc., as well as Volume 20 ofFlowering Plants of South Africa.Scadoxus pole-evansii is named for his son, Reginald.
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