Lee Oras Overholts

Lee Oras Overholts (23 June 1890 – 10 November 1946) was an American mycologist known for his expertise on polypore fungi. Born in Camden, Ohio, he attended Miami University, where he received an Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. During the course of his graduate school research at Washington University, he met prominent mycologists such as Bruce Fink, Frank Kern, and Edward Angus Burt, and developed an interest in the polypores. Overholts received a Ph.D. from Washington University in 1915, after which he started teaching courses in botany, and later in mycology and forest pathology at Pennsylvania State University.^[1]

Overholts was the vice president of the Mycological Society of America in 1937, and its president in 1938.^[1] Several fungal taxa been named in his honor:

• Clitocybe overholtsii Murrill 1916^[2]
• Mycena overholtsii A.H.Sm. & Solheim 1953^[3]
• Peniophora overholtsii Burt 1926^[4]
• Phellinus overholtsii Ginns 1984^[5]
• Poria overholtsii Pilát 1940

Selected works

• Overholts, L.O. (1914). The Polyporaceae of Ohio. Annals of the Missouri Botanic Garden 1: 81–155.
• Overholts, L.O. (1915). Comparative studies in the Polyporaceae. Annals of the Missouri Botanic Garden 2: 667–730.
• Overholts, L.O. (1924). Pholiota. North American Flora 1924: 261–276.
• Overholts, L.O. (1927). A monograph of the genus Pholiota in the United States. Annals of the Missouri Botanic Garden 14: 87–210.
• Overholts, L.O. (1953). The Polyporaceae of the United States, Alaska and Canada. University of Michigan Studies 19: 466 pp.

See also

• List of mycologists

References

1. Kern FD. (1948). "Lee Oras Overholts". Mycologia 40 (1): 1–5.
2. Murrill WA. (1916). "Agaricaceae tribe Agariceae". North America Flora 9 (6): 375–421 (see p. 403).
3. Smith AH, Solheim WG. (1953). "New and unusual fleshy fungi from Wyoming". Madroño 12 (4): 103–109.
4. Burt EA. (1925). "The Thelephoraceae of North America. XIV. Peniophora". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 12 (3): 213–357 (see p. 290).
5. Ginns J. (1984). "New names, new combinations and new synonymy in the Corticiaceae, Hymenochaetaceae and Polyporaceae". Mycotaxon 21: 325–333.
6. "Author Query for 'Overh.'". International Plant Names Index.

External links

• Works by or about Lee Oras Overholts at Internet Archive