Elsie Quarterman

Who was Elsie Quarterman?

Elsie Quarterman was a prominent plant ecologist. She was a Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt University.

Quarterman was born on November 28, 1910 in Valdosta, Georgia USA. She earned a B.A. from Georgia State Women's College in 1932 and earned an M.A. in botany from Duke University in 1943.

Quarterman completed her Ph.D. at Duke University in 1949 with Henry J. Oosting. During her graduate work and afterward, she also collaborated extensively with Catherine Keever.

Quarterman is best known for her work on the ecology of Tennessee cedar glades. These herb-dominated plant communities on the shallow soils of limestone outcrops are globally rare habitats and contain many endemic plant species. She is also credited with rediscovering the native Tennessee coneflower, Echinacea tennesseensis, which was thought to be extinct, in 1969. The species is now considered federally endangered.

She supervised seven doctoral students, including Stewart Ware, a plant ecologist at the College of William and Mary, and Carol C. Baskin and Jerry M. Baskin, professors at the University of Kentucky. Throughout her career, Quarterman was also active in conservation.