| BEN |
| BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS |
|---|
| ISSN 1188-603X |
| No. 384 November 27, 2007 | aceska@telus.net | Victoria, B.C. |
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We are sorry to say that Dr. Anwar Maun, Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, died on September 24, 2007. He had quietly and good-naturedly suffered Lyme disease for many years, and complications arising from that malaise proved his undoing. Although particularly weakened in his last months he was still engaged in writing his book on sand dunes of the world, reviewing manuscripts, directing home improvement projects and dune-walking. He was taken to hospital at the end of July, with acute ascites, and never really emerged into normal life again.
Anwar was born January 1, 1935 into a farming family in Pakistan. He spent his childhood and youth in an agricultural setting and was familiar with field crops as well as the workings of buffalo and camels. He was also exposed in early life to the atrocities that accompanied partitioning of India and Pakistan. Scholarship was encouraged and he was an excellent student, and enrolled in Punjab University in Lahore, where he received a Merit Scholarship as well as both B.Sc. and his first M.Sc. His Masters research focused on the effects of the time of sowing and various cultural factors on the yield of maize, and as a result of his work the overall yield of maize was improved in the Canal Colony of that province. He was a "distinguished member" of the college basketball team and granted the privilege of wearing "the colors". He graduated from PU in 1958. His next masters program was undertaken at the American University of Beirut during a time when Lebanon was green and beautiful, and Moslems and Jews intermarried and lived together in peace. Here at AUB he received one of the few available Open Scholarships and was described by his supervisors as an outstanding graduate student. In 1963 he earned a second M.Sc., this in Agriculture-Plant Pathology, which was based on his research on improving the yield and quality of four annual forage plants.
Following his years in Lebanon he returned for a short time to Pakistan before temporarily leaving his young daughters and heading for Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. There he enrolled in a PhD program in an Agronomy Department, but his course work included several ecology offerings by the renowned R.L. Daubenmire. Clearly the Daubenmire field trips in the mountains and prairies of the "Pacific Northwest" heightened Anwar's fascination with natural systems. His research at WSU concerned the influence of temperature on floral induction, pollen viability and seed set of cool-season grasses, and his results were described in five papers published in Agronomy Journal and in Crop Science.
He graduated with his Ph.D. in Crop Ecology in early 1968 and then moved to the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, where he taught and researched for 35 years. At UWO he contributed significantly to undergraduate and graduate teaching in ecology, and launched a large important second-year population biology course for undergraduates as well as an innovative interdisciplinary graduate program in environmental sciences.
When first at UWO he was a post-doctoral fellow and worked on weeds, but later as he moved through the professorial ranks abandoned the agricultural side of life and started to research dune ecosystems. His first published papers were mostly applied, but after launching an extensive program of dune ecology on the shores of Lake Huron his dune contributions began to appear. The first five were published in 1981, and mainly concerned ecology of the grasses, Ammophila breviligulata and Calamovilfa longifolia.
Anwar was the author of nearly 100 scientific papers, with the majority focused on sand dune ecology, a field in which he became recognized as a world expert. For his extensive achievements related to dune systems he was awarded the prestigious George Lawson Medal by the Canadian Botanical Association. Among the many topics addressed by him and his students in the course of dune research were burial and emergence from sand (e.g., Zhang & Maun 1990), dune stabilization through planting (e.g., Maun & Krajnyk 1989), browsing and predation (e.g., Gedge and Maun 1994), intrapopulational variation (e.g., Hawke & Maun 1988) and allelopathy (Yun & Maun 1997). Other facets of his dune work explored interactions involving mycorrhizae (e.g., Little & Maun 1996), white-tailed deer (Phillips & Maun 1997) and threatened or rare species (e.g., Maun 1997). His opus magnus on sand dune ecology is nearly finished and will be published by Oxford University Press. He traveled widely to present his work, consult and examine student theses involving dune vegetation. He spent one sabbatical at the University of California, Davis (1981) and another at the Institute for Ecological Research in Oostvoorne, Holland (1988-1989) and was for many years an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Botany. In addition he reviewed papers submitted for publication to more than ten other international journals.
Although he only acted as departmental chair for one year he was a bright light among administrators, distinguishing himself by kindness, fairness, far-sightedness and a dogged determination to make things better. He co-ordinated the departmental graduate education committee for many years, and also served as chair of the undergraduate teaching committee, as well as of many other major committees, both in the department and the Faculty of Science.
He was interested in and collected art, particularly Innuit lithographs and Pakistani carpets, and skilled in photography and woodworking. He kept a close eye on the wildlife in his chemical- free backyard, and had a weakness for birds, along with, strangely enough, whales. He participated in the Islamic Society of North America and was one of its highly respected officers.
Anwar left many projects undone and many pleasures still anticipated. He will be missed greatly all across Canada, in Pakistan and in the numerous other parts of the world where his insight, abilities, and spectacular smile earned him enthusiastic followings.
We are sad to report that Oregon botanist Georgia Mason died in Eugene-Springfield Oregon on October 8, 2007 at the age of 97.
Ms. Mason played an important role in Oregon botany. She was the Curator of the University of Oregon Herbarium in Eugene from 1969 to 1976. (The Herbarium was later transferred to OSU.) Mason earned a BA degree from Montclair State University in New Jersey in 1941, and an MS from Oregon State University in 1960. She was an expert on the flora of the Wallowa Mountains, and was also interested in wetland plants and weedy invasives of the Willamette Valley. After her retirement from the UO, she continued to live in Eugene and led many educational botany walks in the area. Otherwise she gardened and lived a quiet life with her beloved dogs. She has approximately 2,230 herbarium sheets at the OSU Herbarium. In 1979 she established the Georgia Mason OSU Herbarium Fund with an endowment that supports student employment at the Herbarium in Corvallis.
Georgia Mason published two well-respected books: Guide to the Plants of the Wallowa Mountains of Northeastern Oregon (UO Museum of Natural History,1975), and Plants of Wet to Moist Habitats in and Around Eugene Oregon (self-published, 1982).
Summary: Galium parisiense L. specimens from British Columbia have been re-identified as Galium anglicum Hudson. Galium parisiense should be deleted from the flora of British Columbia and replaced by Galium anglicum.
Lipscomb & Nesom (2007) have recently revised the Galium parisiense complex and recognized three species that have been ususally treated as "Galium parisiense sensu lato":
In view of this treatment, our report of "Galium parisiense" from British Columbia from Lasquetti Island (Ceska & Ceska 1998) was based on aspecimen that has been re-identified as Galium anglicum (Nesom, pers. communication). Another specimen of "Galium parisiense" from Hornby Island also belongs to Galium anglicum.
The following identification key was freely adapted from one
published by Lipscomb & Nesom (2007):
Key to Galium parisiense, G. divaricatum, and G. anglicum
All species of this complex are native in Europe and the Middle-
East Asia. According to Lipscomb & Nesom (l.c.), Galium
anglicum has been introduced to Canada, continental USA &
Hawaii, Australia & New Zealand. Galium divaricatum has been
introduced to the continental USA & Hawaii, Australia and New
Zealand.Galium parisiense has been introduced to Chile, USA &
New Zealand, For more detailed maps of the distribution of these
taxa in the USA see Lipscomb & Nesom (2007).
Specimens deposited in the Royal British Columbia Museum
in Victoria (V):
Thanks to G.L. Nesom and B.L. Lipscomb for identification of the
Royal British Columbia Museum (V) specimens and for the
permission to use and paraphraze their unpublished article.
1. Fruit surface bristly-hispid with uncinate-tipped hairs
........................................ G. parisiense
1. Fruit surface without hairs, smooth or papillose ... 2
2. Inflorescence relatively diffuse, branches divaricate;
ultimate fruits (2-)3-6(-7) nodes beyond primary stem axis
(with largest leaves); first inflorescence internode
(beyond primary stem axis) 15-50 mm long
................................... G. divaricatum
2. Inflorescence relatively strict, branches ascending; ultimate
fruits 2-3(-4) nodes beyond primary stem axis (with
largest leaves); first inflorescence internode (beyond
primary stem axis) 3-12(-20) mm long
...................................... G. anglicum
Acknowledgements
References
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