Amalie Dietrich

Amalie Dietrich was born in Siebenlehn, Saxony, German Confederation. In 1846, she married Wilhelm August Salomo Dietrich, a doctor. With no formal training she learnt all she could from him about collecting and they planned careers working as naturalists. Between 1845 and 1862 they made a precarious living collecting Alpine specimens to sell to chemists for medicines and to museums for their natural history collections.[3] Some of the delicate alpine flowers she collected in this period can be seen on display in the Natural History Museum in Freiburg.[4]

It appears Wilhelm began spending most of his time mounting the specimens and the collecting fell to Amalie. This meant long, lonely, periods away from home which were made even worse after her only child, Charitas, was born in 1848. Her husband refused to look after his daughter, who she was boarded out to strangers, and, in 1859, left to fend for herself. Finally in 1861 her husband was discovered having an affair and she broke with him completely.[5]

She collected the type specimens of many species, and in a number of cases the author of the description honoured her in the species epithet (dietrichiae, dietrichiana, amaliae, etc.). Species whose type specimens she collected include:

Aongstroemia dietrichiae Müll.Hal. (1868) - Dicranella dietrichiae (Müll.Hal.) A.Jaeger
Laxmannia illicebrosa Rchb.f. (1871) - a synonym of Laxmannia gracilis R.Br.
Marsdenia hemiptera Rchb. (1871)
Fissidens dietrichiae Müll.Hal. (1872)
Macromitrium sordidevirens Müll.Hal. (1872) - Macromitrium aurescens Hampe
Sargassum aciculare Grunow (1874) - Sargassum filifolium var. aciculare (Grunow) Grunow
Sargassum amaliae Grunow (1874) - accepted[6]
Sargassum godeffroyi Grunow (1874) - accepted[7]
Schoenus elatus Boeck. (1875) - Schoenus falcatus R.Br.
Scirpus dietrichiae Boeck. (1875) - Lipocarpha microcephala (R.Br.) Kunth
Scleria dietrichiae Boeck. (1875) - Scleria levis Retz.
Scleria novae-hollandiae Boeck. (1875) - Scleria laxa R.Br.
Carex dietrichiae Boeck. (1875) - Carex indica L.
Cyperus luerssenii Boeck. (1875) - Cyperus subulatus R.Br.
Acacia dietrichiana F.Muell. (1882)
Barbula subcalycina Mull.Hal. (1882) - (not listed in IPNI, APNI, nor Plants of the world online; listed in AusMoss)
Frullania dietrichana Steph. (1910) - Frullania seriata Gottsche ex Steph.
Indigofera amaliae Domin (1915) - Indigofera polygaloides M.B.Scott
Acacia penninervis var. longiracemosa Domin (1926)
Cryptocarya multicostata Domin (1926) - Cryptocarya hypospodia F.Muell.
Cryptocarya triplinervis var. euryphylla Domin (1926) - Cryptocarya triplinervis R.Br.
Psoralea dietrichiae Domin (1926) - Cullen australasicum (Schltdl.) J.W.Grimes
Swainsona luteola var. dietrichiae Domin (1926) - Swainsona luteola F.Muell.
Tetrastigma nitens var. amaliae Domin (1927) - Tetrastigma nitens (F.Muell.) Planch.
Plectronia coprosmoides var. spathulata O.Swartz (1927) - Cyclophyllum coprosmoides var. spathulatum (O.Schwarz) S.T.Reynolds & R.J.F.Hend.
Premna benthamiana Domin (1928) - Premna serratifolia L.
Hibiscus amaliae Domin (1930) - Hibiscus heterophyllus Vent. (1805)
Mallotus claoxyloides f. grossedentata Domin (1930) - Mallotus ficifolius (Baill.) Pax & K.Hoffm.
Mallotus claoxyloides var. glabratus Domin (1930) - Mallotus claoxyloides (F.Muell.) Müll.Arg.
Pagetia dietrichiae Domin (1930) - Bosistoa medicinalis (F.Muell.) T.G.Hartley
Persoonia amaliae Domin (1930)
Cyperus pumilus var. nervulosus Kuk. (1936) - Cyperus nervulosus (Kük.) S.T.Blake
Helichrysum eriocephalum J.H.Willis (1952)
Nortonia amaliae (a wasp)
Drosera dietrichiana Rchb.f. (1871) - a synonym of Drosera burmanni Vahl (1794) [8]

(Current names, synonymy etc based on searches of the Australian Plant Name Index and Plants of the World online. Where no alternative name is given above, the species name is that accepted by either or both of these sources — with the exception of the seaweeds.)

Her collections formed the basis of Zur Flora von Queensland ("On Queensland's Flora", 1875)[9] by Christian Luerssen. While in Australia, she visited Ferdinand von Mueller, and in 1881 Mueller acquired a set of her specimens from Luerssen. (The National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) holds 2790 of her specimens.)[10] She published nothing in her name. However, her collections continue to be an important resource in herbaria around the world (MEL, B, BM, BRSL, HBG, JE, K, L , MO, P, US, W).[10]

Dietrich Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in recognition of her work in Australia.[11]

• Timeline of women in science

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amalie Dietrich.

• Stefanie Affeldt, Wulf D. Hund: From ‘Plant Hunter’ to ‘Tomb Raider’. The Changing Image of Amalie Dietrich. In: Australian Studies Journal | Zeitschrift für Australienstudien, 33-34, 2019-2020, pp. 89–124, open-access
• Australian Science Archives Project. 1998. Amalie Dietrich 1821- 1891
• The Letters of Amalie Dietrich
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Dietrich, Amalie". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
• Queensland Photographs at Pitt-Rivers Museum
• The Hard Road, Charitas Bischoff, Martin Hopkinson Ltd, London, 1931
• Dietrich, Lodewyckx, & Lodewyckx, A. (1943). Australische Briefe / von Amalie Dietrich ; with a biographical sketch, exercises and a vocabulary, edited by Augustin Lodewyckx. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press in association with Oxford University Press.
• Bischoff, C. (1914). " Amalie Dietrich, ein Leben von Charitas Bischoff. (Grote'sche Sammlung von Werken zeitgenössischer Schriftsteller; Bd. 97). Berlin: Grote.
• Lüttge, U., & Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. (1988). " Amalie Dietrich (1821-1891) German biologist in Australia, homage to Australia's Bicentenary, 1988 / edited by Ulrich Lüttge. (Studies in international cultural relations ; v. 29). Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
• Sumner, R. (1993). A woman in the wilderness, The story of Amalie Dietrich in Australia, Ray Sumner. Kensington, NSW, Australia: New South Wales University Press.