Information compiled by Carol Ann McCormick
(August 2005)
The University of North Carolina Herbarium
(NCU) has catalogued about 70 specimens collected by Mary E. Wharton.
All are from Kentucky. With approximately 10% of the collection
catalogued at this time, many more specimens collected by Dr.
Wharton will be found.
The following paragraph is from pages 81-82 of Jones, Ronald L.
(2005) Plant life of Kentucky: an illustrated guide to the
vascular flora. The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington.
Another major study in the 1940s was a Ph.D.
dissertation by Mary E. Wharton on the flora and vegetation of
the Devonian-Mississippian black shale regions of Kentucky. This
study of the Knobs region, the most comprehensive regionwide study
yet attempted in Kentucky, resulted in the documentation of over
1,000 taxa in the area. One of Wharton's collections of a dewberry
species was named in her honor, Rubus whartoniae. Her
study was done out of the University of Michigan, but over 6,000
specimens were donated to McFarland's growing collection at the
University of Kentucky. Wharton was associated with Georgetown
College for the remainder of her professional career. During her
long career, she, in collaboration with Roger Barbour, produced
a series of popular books dealing with the Kentucky flora, including
books on wildflowers and ferns (Wharton & Barbour 1971), trees
and shrubs (1973), and Bluegrass Land & Life (1991).
This latter work represented the culmination of her outstanding
career; it included a list of 1, 149 plant species of the flora
of the Inner Bluegrass and was her final plea for protection of
the disappearing natural resources of the Bluegrass. Perspectives
on the life of Mary Wharton include those of Meijer [Meijer, W.
(1992) Mary Wharton. Kentucky Native Plant Society Newsletter
7(1): 2-3] and Wieland [Wieland, C. (1992) Mary Eugenia Wharto,
1912-1991. Kentucky Ntive Plant Society Newsletter 7(1): 1-2.].
PUBLICATIONS
Wharton, M.E. (1945) Floristics and vegetation
of the Devonian-Mississippian black shale region of Kentucky.
Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Wharton, M.E. and R. W. Barbour (1971) A guide to the wildflowers
and ferns of Kentucky. The University Press of Kentucky,
Lexington.
---- (1973) Trees & shrubs
of Kentucky. The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington.
---- (1991) Bluegrass land & life: Land character, plants,
& animals of the Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky: Past,
present, & future. The University Press of Kentucky,
Lexington.
