Rose E. Collom

Rose Eudora Collom (née Wilson; 20 December 1870 – 26 December 1956) was an American botanist and plant collector. She was the first paid botanist of the Grand Canyon National Park. She discovered several plant species, some of which were named in her honor, and collected numerous plant specimens.

Early life and education Collom was born in Georgia and trained as a teacher, attending Lindenwood College from 1886 to 1889. She married Wilbert B. Collom on 15 November 1907 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Plant collecting She became interested in Arizona flora when she moved to Gila County with her husband in 1914. They lived in an isolated area in the foothills of the Mazatzal Mountains where her husband worked a mine on the Collom property.

Her plant collecting led her to discover several plants, previously unknown to science, that would eventually be named after her. Collom discovered and collected a number of plant specimens used to create the formal scientific description and scientific name of that particular type of plant. Ranunculus collomiae and Galium collomiae. Dr John Thomas Howell of the California Academy of Sciences, when naming Galium Collomiae wrote, "It is a pleasure and honor to name this distinctive addition to the Arizona flora in honor of Mrs Rose Collom who has done so much critical field work in that state."

Collaboration with other notable botanists As well as collecting specimens, Collom made careful observations and detailed descriptions of the natural environments, bloom times, growing conditions and uses of native Arizona plants. She was one of the acknowledged collaborators with botanists Kearney and Peebles when they wrote the book Flowering Plants and Ferns of Arizona. In the Collaborators section Kearney and Peebles wrote of Collom that "the writers are indebted for the privilege of using her manuscript notes on the habitat, time of flowering and economic use of Arizona plants". Flowering Plants and Ferns of Arizona became the foundation upon which Kearney and Peebles based their later book Arizona Flora. Collom also contributed to this publication and its subsequent amendment. Arizona Flora remained the classic reference book for information on Arizona flora for over 30 years.

Collom believed that some plants from higher altitudes could adapt themselves to lower altitudes if they were planted and cared for at an intermediate altitude and had time to adjust to the changed conditions. She was encouraged in this theory of progressive adaptation by Dr J. J. Thornberry, a botanist at the University of Arizona, and Dr F. J. Crider, Director of the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. She put this theory into practice by collecting plants from higher altitudes and then planting them in her garden. She allowed them several seasons to adapt and then replanted them at a lower altitude. In this way she assisted and encouraged the use of native Arizona species in gardens in that state. and supplied numerous native Arizona plants to it. Many of her personal papers along with her herbarium collection were donated to the Garden in 1951.