Abel A. Hunter

Abel Aken Hunter (September 18, 1877 – April 6, 1935) was an American botanist that collected and cataloged Panamanian orchids and a member of orchid hunting expeditions. From 1915 to 1935, Hunter traveled with well-known collectors and researchers at the time such as: Charles Powell, George Pring, Carroll Dodge, Julian Steyermark, and Paul Allen. Hunter and Allen's herbarium specimens, found in the Oakes Ames Herbarium at Harvard University, include four new species.

Early life Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Mary Abba (née Crooker) and Joseph H. Hunter, Abel was the third-born of four children. Around 1870, Joseph Hunter opened a law practice in Mendota, Illinois. There he met and married Mary Crooker. After the birth of their daughter, Alice Cushman Hunter (1874), the pioneer family moved 400 miles west to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Walter David (1875), Abel Aken (1877), and Joseph Slayton Hunter (1879) were born. On January 3, 1893, Hunter (age 15) was appointed to the United States Postal Service (USPS), while studying for a higher education. That same year, Hunter, along with George G. Hedgcock, submitted a paper "Thorea" after discovering a rare seaweed (Thorea ramosissima Bory) in Lancaster County, Nebraska. By 1900, Hunter had left the university's employment and began working full-time for the USPS. The May 4, 1901 issue of the Nebraska State Journal reported that: "A. A. Hunter, who has for several years been doing work in the department of botany, has accepted a position [with the USPS] in Grand Island [Nebraska]."

Family life and career, fraternal organizations On July 24, 1901, in North Platte, Nebraska, Hunter married Mary A. Dixon (1875-1963); they had one son, Raymond Dixon Hunter (1902-1928). In 1905 Hunter's annual salary with the USPS was $700. He was promoted to mail order clerk on January 1, 1906; in July, Hunter transferred to Panama. By working in Gorgona, in the Canal Zone, his salary jumped to $1,500 per year.

Fraternal organizations

Hunter was an active member of two service organizations. Back in 1909, at the lodge institution of the Knights of Pythias, he was recorded as a prelate. In Gorgona, at the January 16, 1912, meeting of the IOOF (International Order of Odd Fellows) Isthmian Canal Lodge No. 1, after having been elected by the membership, he was installed as the Noble Grand, the highest officer position.

Orchid collection

Early Hunts

In 1910, Charles Powell, a dispensary nurse, transferred to Gorgona where Hunter was working. Although Powell was 23 years older than Hunter, a friendship took root between the two men, one that would last roughly 17 years. Instead of fish, they brought, "A boat-load of orchids back to Gorgona where they were disseminated over the Canal Zone, the United States, and Europe." In 1918, Powell started submitting pressed, mounted, documented orchid specimens to researchers: first to R. Allen Rolfe in England, then to Rudolf Schlechter in Germany. As Rolfe died before completing his study of Powell's specimens, Schlechter took up documenting their taxonomy. When the plants were within reach a machete was used to separate the orchid plant from the tree. At times, the men would dismount and tie up their horses to search deeper in the dense jungle. The first week they collected 75 plants of Odontoglossum powellii.

Pring reported the collection results: "In all, we had collected about 126 species of plants embracing 58 genera, and there are still 12 kinds of plants unidentified." Allen remained several weeks longer; he and Hunter were to collect in the Coclé Province (working over the Continental Divide from Penonomé to the Atlantic Slope). Hunter's name appears on 740+ specimen submissions from different combinations of collection teams; the herbarium specimens are found mainly in the MBG's herbarium (MO) and are found in its virtual herbarium database (Tropicos).

Finding the long-sought prize, Sobralia powellii

The native home of the Sobralia powellii was unknown, so the collection team of Hunter and Allen set out to find it. A description of the Sobralia powellii is found in Powell's herbarium specimen's field notes: "Flowers white, with a bronze throat, bordered with cherry shading." Hunter suspected it would be found in the jungle near the head-waters of the Rio Boqueron. On the second day, traveling by native dugout (cayuca), the men encounter numerous violent squalls. Poles were cut to drive the cayuca up through "boiling rapids" costing another half-day of time but allowing the men to reach an absolutely unexplored region. The next day violent tropical rain continued non-stop. Their guide made a trail through the jungle and the men followed having to portage their equipment while struggling to move forward along "slippery clay ridges or through fast streams." Upon reaching the river at this point, they found it flowing through canyon-like gorges. Collecting had been poor; the men were discouraged. Having spent too much time in its search, they decided to give up. Finding themselves at the brink of a pool, drenched from the rain and needing a break, Allen jump into the pool fully clothed. In his report of the remainder of the experience, Allen wrote: "Climbing out [of the pool] on the opposite side my astonished gaze was met by a plant with great milky white buds nearly ready to open. The long-sought prize, Sobralia powellii, had been found. Its native home was no longer a mystery. After searching feverishly the surrounding territory, three more plants were found, so there are now about a dozen plants of this rare orchid at the Tropical Station and one small plant at the Arboretum at Gray Summit."

For Masdevallia tenuissima C. Schweinf. #587

For Pleurothallis rotundata C. Schweinf. #561

During this expedition period, Hunter and Allen collected roughly 6,000 plants. Before they could accomplish their objectives in Panama, Hunter unexpectedly died; Allen continued hunting without him into May 1935. Abel A. Hunter succeeded Powell in 1928 - under his directorship, the Tropical Station was able to continued to operation despite the Great Depression; plant collecting continued and the exhibit was recognized as "one of the show places on the Canal Zone." Hunter managed the Tropical Station for roughly seven years until his death in April 1935; his wife Mary took over the management of the Tropical Station until a replacement was found in late 1936. Hunter's service record in the Canal Zone's Government and Sanitation department succinctly documents his USPS work.

For field work While roaming the countryside of his youth, Hunter was intrigued by the natural world around him. He focused his studies at the state university on botany. In 1898 he co-published a paper on a rare seaweed discovered in Nebraska and worked for the University of Nebraska as a plant collector. Once established in Panama he returned to nature through fishing, which led to a friendship with Powell and over two decades of scientifically significant orchid collecting. His work with Powell led to Schlechter naming five new to science species in Hunter's honor. 750+ herbarium specimens bear his name as co-collector or collector with Dodge, Steyermark and Allen. With Allen, he contributed to the discovery of at least four new to science orchid species.

Death and legacy

On April 6, 1935, at the age of 57, Abel A. Hunter died.