H M R Rupp

Brief description

Herman Rupp was an Anglican clergyman who was considered one of three experts on Australia's orchids in the first half of the twentieth century. For most of his 40 years as a priest he was assigned to parishes in New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria, where he took every opportunity to study the local flora and compile censuses of them. From the mid-1920s Rupp concentrated on orchids, an interest since childhood. He published over 200 papers and two authoritative books, and described four new genera and 71 new species. Such was the respect in which he was held that in retirement, he was invited to be Honorary Curator of Orchids at the National Herbarium of New South Wales. Rupp donated large collections of specimens to this Herbarium in 1946 and to the University of Melbourne School of Botany in 1926.

Full description

Herman Montague Rucker Rupp (1872-1956), clergyman and botanist, was born on 27 December 1872 at Port Fairy, Victoria, second child of Rev. Charles Ludwig Herman Rupp, Prussian-born Anglican clergyman,...