Hiram Wild

Hiram Wild (15 March 1917 - 28 April 1982) was an English botanist who worked in Southern Rhodesia.

Wild studied at Imperial College, University of London. In 1945, he wrote his Ph.D. thesis in which he examined the lettuce pathogen, Bremia lactucae. From 1945, he worked as the government botanist in Southern Rhodesia, and soon became head of the Government Herbarium of Southern Rhodesia. In 1960, Wild started the Herbarium botanical journal 'Kirkia', named for John Kirk (1832–1922), African explorer and companion of David Livingstone. In the ensuing years, he worked as its chief editor. Wild, along with Arthur Wallis Exell, initiated the Flora Zambesiaca project, a series of monographs on the flora of Africa. In 1965, Wild was appointed professor at Salisbury University College, now known as the University of Zimbabwe.

In 1980, due to ill-health, he resigned as professor at Salisbury and moved to Cape Town, South Africa.

Personal life Hiram was the son of Hiram Wild (*July 1895, Sheffield, Yorkshire) and Margaret Hawksworth (*13 May 1896 Sheffield, Yorkshire) He married Kathleen Mabel Jean Osborne (*8 July 1918 Cape Town) in 1945. They had 6 children.

Selected publications Wild, H. 'Vegetation of copper-bearing soils' - Salisbury, 1968. - 71 p. Wild, H. 'The vegetation of nickel-bearing soils' - Causeway, 1970. - 62 p.

Plants named for Hiram Wild Aristida wildii Melderis, 1970 Buchnera wildii Philcox, 1987 Clerodendrum wildii Moldenke, 1949 (= Rotheca wildii (Moldenke) R. Fern, 2000 Commiphora wildii Merxm. 1960 Cynoglossum wildii E.S. Martins, 1988 Erica wildii Brenan, 1964 Eriocaulon wildii S. M. Phillips, 1997 Euphorbia wildii L.C. Leach, 1975 Wildiana indigofera J.B.Gillett, 1958 Kalanchoe wildii Raym.-Hamet ex R. Fern., 1978 Lotus wildii J. B. Gillett, 1959 Pandiaka wildii Suess. 1950 Rhus wildii R. Fern. & A.Fern. 1965 - Searsia wildii ( R. Fern . & A. Fern .) Moffett, 2007 Rhynchosia wildii Verdc., 2000 Vernonia wildii Merxm., 1951