This blog began with a simple question — how did Osoberry get its scientific name, Oemleria cerasiformis? The species name made sense, Latin for “shaped like a cherry,” but how did the genus get named after an obscure German immigrant named Oemler? The answer, which I find very amusing, borders on the absurd for the insights it offers into the cryptic world of binomial nomenclature.
Augustus Gottlieb Oemler
Augustus Gottlieb Oemler, was born in 1774 in Germany, immigrated to the United States, and settled in Savannah, Georgia. Since Osoberry originally grew only on the west coast of North America, did Oemler travel across the continent in the 1800s and “discover” it for western science? No, it turns out Osoberry was first described in 1827 by the botanists Hooker and Arnott on Captain Beechey’s voyage.
Captain Beechey’s Voyage
Published in 1841
William Jackson Hooker and G. A. Walker Arnott sailed with a Captain Beechey on a three-year voyage around the world from 1825 to 1828. On the west coast of North America, they collected a hitherto undescribed plant they named “Nuttallia cerasiformis.” Their choice of a genus name honored their fellow countryman, Thomas Nuttall, an English botanist who worked in America during the early 1800s.
Torr. & A. Gray ex Hook. & Arn.
Early botanic references to Osoberry, appeared as “Nuttallia cerasiformis (Torr. & A. Gray ex Hook. & Arn.).” The parenthetical was taxonomic nomenclature explaining that the name came from Torrey and Gray who got it from Hooker and Arnott. Probably, Hooker and Arnott sent a description of the plant to the American botanists John Torrey and Asa Gray. When Torrey and Gray published the Flora of North America in 1838, they included the plant and used the name Nuttallia cerasiformis.
Osmaronia Cerasiformis
In 1891 another American botanist, Edward Lee Greene, introduced a new genus name for the plant, “Osmaronia.” Writing in Volume 2 of the journal Pittonia (here), of which Greene was the author, he rambled on (and on) for several pages (189-191) explaining why Nuttallia was not an appropriate name for the genus. He concluded: “In view of all these contingencies I shall henceforth write Osmaronia cerasiformis instead of Nuttallia cerasiformis.” He did not explain where he got “Osmaronia,” and it has no obvious Latin translation, but from 1891 to 1975, it was apparently the accepted name for the genus — at least in England and America.
Original Appearance of “Oemleria”
However, before Greene, the actual first appearance of “Oemleria” was in 1841 in Der Deutsche Botaniker, by Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (here). On page 236 of Synonyma Addenda, he lists “Nuttallia T.: Oemleria Rchb.” The “Rchb” basically references himself as the originator of this genus name for the American plant.
I found nothing on the web to suggest that Oemler was a famous or even trained scientist, but he did happen to correspond with some of the German botanists of his time including Reichenbach. Presumably, Reichenbach, having learned about the plant from either the 1838 Flora of North American or from his correspondence with Oemler, honored his countryman by applying “Oemleria” to the genus for use in German taxonomy.
Adoption of Oemleria
In 1975, John W. Landon published an article in the journal TAXON, Volume 24, Issue 1 p. 200 (here) titled “A New Name for Osmaronia cerasiformis (Rosaceae).” In the article he cited a decision by the “Committee for Spermatophyta” to reject “conservation of Osmaronia from Greene,” that necessitated a “new combination” under the earlier name Oemleria from Reichenbach. He says that it was “unfortunate that as familiar a name as Osmaronia” had to be replaced by an “obscure earlier name,” Oemleria, but it was necessary to serve the “best interests of botanical nomenclature.” So, at least for now, it appears that Augustus Gottlieb Oemler has secured his name in the annals of botany.
