Richard Hook Richens
Encyclopedia
Richard Hook Richens was a former Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Plant Breeding and Genetics (part of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux
) at Cambridge University, and became best known for his studies of elm
(Ulmus). His most famous publication was the seminal Elm http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0g49AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=ulmus+wyssotzky&source=bl&ots=ZOBXkCNqaj&sig=4u_Wan9HOmHkEgc8ssTvxyd1iQ4&hl=en&ei=dnQySsz7IYWOjAfvt7X9CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PPP1,M1 published in 1983, in which he sank many elms formerly treated as species as mere varieties or subspecies of Ulmus minor, notably the English Elm
, which he renamed U. minor var. vulgaris. His approach has been much criticized since his death, and some of his taxonomy challenged or discarded. Dr Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh writes, however (2009): "The advent of DNA fingerprinting has shed considerable light on the question. A number of studies have now shown that the distinctive forms that Melville elevated to species and Richens lumped together as field elm are single clones, all genetically identical, that have been propagated by vegetative means such as cuttings or root suckers. This means that enigmatic British elms such as Plot's Elm
and English Elm
have turned out to be single clones of field elm. Although Richens did not have the evidence to prove it, he got the story right by recognising a series of clones and grouping them together as a variable species."
CAB International
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) at Cambridge University, and became best known for his studies of elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
(Ulmus). His most famous publication was the seminal Elm http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0g49AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=ulmus+wyssotzky&source=bl&ots=ZOBXkCNqaj&sig=4u_Wan9HOmHkEgc8ssTvxyd1iQ4&hl=en&ei=dnQySsz7IYWOjAfvt7X9CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PPP1,M1 published in 1983, in which he sank many elms formerly treated as species as mere varieties or subspecies of Ulmus minor, notably the English Elm
English Elm
Ulmus procera Salisb., the English, Common, or more lately Atinian, Elm was, before the advent of Dutch elm disease, one of the largest and fastest-growing deciduous trees in Europe...
, which he renamed U. minor var. vulgaris. His approach has been much criticized since his death, and some of his taxonomy challenged or discarded. Dr Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh writes, however (2009): "The advent of DNA fingerprinting has shed considerable light on the question. A number of studies have now shown that the distinctive forms that Melville elevated to species and Richens lumped together as field elm are single clones, all genetically identical, that have been propagated by vegetative means such as cuttings or root suckers. This means that enigmatic British elms such as Plot's Elm
Plot's Elm
Ulmus minor var. plotii Richens, known as Plot's Elm, or Lock Elm, is found only in England, where it is encountered mainly in the East Midlands, notably around the River Witham in Lincolnshire and in the Trent Valley around Newark on Trent...
and English Elm
English Elm
Ulmus procera Salisb., the English, Common, or more lately Atinian, Elm was, before the advent of Dutch elm disease, one of the largest and fastest-growing deciduous trees in Europe...
have turned out to be single clones of field elm. Although Richens did not have the evidence to prove it, he got the story right by recognising a series of clones and grouping them together as a variable species."
Publications
- (1946). The New Genetics of the Soviet Union. (co-author with P. S. Hudson).
- (1955). Studies on Ulmus 1. The range of variation of East Anglian elms. Watsonia 3: 138-153.
- (1956). Elms. New Biology 20: 7-29.
- (1958). Studies on Ulmus II. The village elms of southern Cambridgeshire. Forestry 31: 132-146.
- (1959). Studies on Ulmus III. The village elms of Hertfordshire. Forestry 32: 138-154.
- (1960). Cambridgeshire elms. Nature in Cambridgeshire 3: 18-22.
- (1961)a. Studies on Ulmus IV. The village elms of Huntingdonshire and a new method for exploring taxonomic discontinuity. Forestry 34: 47-64.
- (1961)b. Studies on Ulmus V. The village elms of Bedfordshire. Forestry 34: 185-206.
- (1965). Studies on Ulmus VI. Fenland elms. Forestry 38: 225-235.
- (1967). Studies on Ulmus VII. Essex elms. Forestry 40: 185-206.
- (1968). The correct designation of the European Field Elm. Feddes Repertorium Speciorum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 79: 1-2.
- (1976). Variation, cytogenics and breeding of the European Field Elms. Annales Forestales Analiza Sumartsvo (Zagreb) 7: 107-141.
- (1977). New designations in Ulmus minor Mill. Taxon 26: 583-584.
- (1980). On fine distinctions in Ulmus L. Taxon 29: 305-312.
- (1981). Elms (Genus Ulmus). In: Hora, B. (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Trees of the World. Oxford: OUP, 150-152.
- (1983). Elm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- (1984). Ulmus × hollandica Miller var. insularum Richens var. nov. Watsonia 15: 105-108.
- (1978). Multivariate analysis of the elms of northern France and England: pooled analysis of the elm populations of northern France and England. Silvae Genetica 27: 85-95. (co-author Jeffers, J.N.R.).
- (1985). The elms of Wales. Forestry 58: 9-25.