Lee Oras Overholts
Lee Oras Overholts was an American mycologist known for his expertise on polypore fungi. Born in Camden, Ohio, he attended Miami University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. During the course of his graduate school research at Washington University, he met prominent mycologists such as Bruce Fink, Frank Kern, and Edward Angus Burt, and developed an interest in the polypores. Overholts received a Ph.D. from Washington University in 1915, after which he started teaching courses in botany, and later in mycology and forest pathology at Pennsylvania State University. Overholts described 35 polypore fungi either alone or with colleague Josiah Lincoln Lowe. However, Overholts often neglected to include a Latin description, contrary to the then-prevailing rules of botanical nomenclature, and consequently a large proportion of his species were published invalidly.
Overholts was the vice president of the Mycological Society of America in 1937, and its president in 1938. Several fungal taxa been named in his honor:
- Clitocybe overholtsii Murrill 1916
- Mycena overholtsii A.H.Sm. & Solheim 1953
- Peniophora overholtsii Burt 1926
- Phellinus overholtsii Ginns 1984
- Poria overholtsii Pilát 1940
Selected works
- Overholts, L.O.. The Polyporaceae of the United States, Alaska and Canada. University of Michigan Studies 19: 466 pp.
