Blog Archive Layout

New lichen species named for U of G tree guru Henry Kock

Dec 19 2011/in News Coverage

GUELPH – A newly-discovered species of lichen will be named in honour of renowned University of Guelph horticulturist Henry Kock, who passed away on Christmas Day 2005.

Kock’s wife, Anne Hansen, purchased the scientific naming rights in an online auction earlier this month.
The lichen will be scientifically known as Bryoria Kockiana.

“I think the real icing on the cake will be the common name,” said Kock’s friend and neighbour, Brian Holstein. “Many are already suggesting it should be called Henry’s Beard.”

Hansen said when she decided to buy the rights she hadn’t seen the lichen and had no idea it so resembled Kock’s trademark flowing beard.

“That was a nice coincidence,” she said in a telephone interview from British Columbia, where she moved in 2007.
The lichen – a combination of fungi and algae which provides critical winter food for animals such as caribou and deer – was discovered by BC lichenologist Trevor Goward. He donated the naming rights to support the Ancient Forest Alliance, a new non-profit organization working to protect BC’s old-growth forests.

“I heard about the auction about a month ago but it just sort of went over my head,” said Hansen, a renowned nature artist. “I didn’t really think it applied to me.”

But a couple of weeks ago Hansen heard a CBC Radio interview with Goward about the lack of interest in the naming rights, which Goward suggested was indicative of a general disinterest in the natural world.

“That struck a chord with me,” Hansen said. “Henry really fought to have people take more of an interest in the natural world. It took me about five minutes to decide this was something I should do for Henry.”

She paid $4,000 for the naming rights.

“I think it’s an incredible thing and what a fitting tribute to him,” said Holstein. “Too bad it’s not an elm tree.”
After Kock’s passing, his home was purchased by neighbours who have maintained his spectacular garden.

“But it’s still just referred to as Henry’s place,” Holstein said. “That’s how everyone knows the property. He had such a tremendous impact on the whole city and on this neighbourhood.”

Hansen said her husband was a “tireless champion” of biodiversity and inconspicuous species.

“Whenever he spoke he would never forget to mention the unglamorous species like the sedges and toads and lichens,” Hansen said. “He appreciated that every species has a role to play and without these little things the bigger ones couldn’t survive.”

Hansen said while she is unsure what her “forest defender” would have made of having a species named for him, she knows he would have liked the idea of naming it for a loved one.

“I thought about that, and if such an opportunity had been available to him I believe he would have named a species in honour of his sister, Irene, a well-known anti-nuclear activist who was killed in a (2001) car accident,” Hansen said. “I think he’s smiling down.”

Read the article in the Guelph Mercury at: https://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/641081–new-lichen-species-named-for-u-of-g-tree-guru-henry-kock

Thumbs Up!

Dec 18 2011/in News Coverage

Thumbs Up To Oystercatcher Girl – a.k.a. Victoria artist Anne Hansen – for a winning $4,000 bid that will give her the right to name a new species of lichen discovered by University of B.C. researcher Trevor Goward, with proceeds to the Ancient Forest Alliance. Hansen will name Bryoria kockiana, after Hansen’s late husband, Henry Kock, a horticulturist and author. The Oystercatcher Girl name comes from her paintings; see them at oystercatchergirl.blogspot.com.

Link to Times Colonist article: https://bit.ly/uae26Y

Scientists’ names live on in lichens

Dec 17 2011/in News Coverage

Two newly-discovered lichens will be named after a botanist, who died of brain cancer in 2005, and a biologist, who died in a car accident in January.

An auction for the right to name the lichens raised $17,900 for The Land Conservancy and $4,000 for the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Artist Anne Hansen, of Victoria, made the winning bid on the hairlike bryoria lichen, which will be known as Bryoria kockiana in memory of her husband, Henry Kock. “Henry was a tireless champion of biodiversity and inconspicuous species like toads, lichens and sedges,” Hansen said.

Kock ran programs at the University of Guelph Arboretum for 20 years.

“Naming a species after a beloved forest defender is my idea of a fabulous solstice celebration,” Hansen said. “I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the lichen looks like Henry’s beard.”

Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said funds raised will be used to map old-growth forest on Vancouver Island and produce old-growth status reports. “This is about eight per cent of our entire year’s funding,” said Wu, who hopes auctioning off the names of newly-discovered species will become more common in Canada.

The second lichen, a two-toned, more leafy variety, will be named Parmelia Sulymae in honour of Randy Sulyma, a forester and biologist who was 43 when he died in a vehicle accident in Chetwynd.

The campaign to come up with the winning bid was co-ordinated by Sylvia Sulyma, Randy’s mother. “For all who knew Randy, this is such a fitting legacy,” Sulyma said. “The whole family is excited and overwhelmed today.”

The $17,900 raised will go toward creating a wildlife corridor, in Wells Gray Provincial Park, for large mammals migrating from winter to summer ranges across the Clearwater Valley.

The two lichens were discovered by Trevor Goward, curator of lichens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of B.C., who offered them for auction. “Future auctions of this kind will garner even more support as Canadians awaken to the honour of being linked, if only in name, to other living species,” Goward said.