He practiced medicine by day and pursued botany by night, the one to pay the bills the other to fulfill a passion.

In George Engelmann's day a person could starve as a botanist, but he couldn't make a living at it. Engelmann helped change all that.

Born in Germany but restless with university studies and, after finishing his medical training, dissatisfied with European politics, he accepted an uncle's proposal to visit America and appraise investment in a German enclave in southern Illinois.

Like a plant hound searching for a new plant, Engelmann found St. Louis and St. Louis found him. A frontier town in 1835, St. Louis had much need of good doctors.

If You Go

What: Noontime Nature lecture on "Engelmann Inn." The final program of this tree series will present biographical details of George Engelmann and natural history details of the Engelmann spruce.

When: Noon Tuesday, Dec. 4.


Cost: Free.

Info: This free noontime program is sponsored by Friends of the Loveland Library.

When not dealing with cholera outbreaks or everyday wounds and ailments, Engelmann studied cactuses and dodders, documented little moths in yucca flowers and tried to resolve the identities and consequently the relatedness of trees.

In 1874 and already 65 years old, Engelmann traveled to Colorado specifically to see and to study various Rocky Mountain conifers in the wild. His work led to the segregation of firs, pines and spruces as well as resolving which were species and which were not.

He was the man who recognized blue spruce, our state tree, was a discrete species.

Despite his enormous contributions to botany, his discoveries were not his finest work. He was at his best as a coach and patron -- an inspiration -- to other aspiring botanists.

He taught them, gave them direction and sent them afield to wild lands poorly known and little mapped if at all. Then, he received the specimens they collected, separated them, compiled them, sold them and shipped them. When the collectors returned, Engelmann paid them.

Suddenly, others were doing what Engelmann could not: make a living at botany.

Along the way more than one botanist paid tribute by naming plants in his honor. So it was that a great tree of the Mountain West came to be called "Engelmann spruce."

More than just a tree, it is probably the single most abundant tree species in all of Colorado. And such abundance means connectedness.

Engelmann spruce provides food and shelter to wildlife as diverse as fungi and owls.

Some fungi soften a tree's wood, and other fungi produce mushrooms. Three-toed woodpeckers excavate the soft wood for nesting cavities, and southern redback-voles eat the mushrooms. Boreal owls live in the vacant woodpecker cavities and eat the redback-voles.

Certainly more than just a tree, the Engelmann spruce is a place where life comes to stay for awhile before it moves on once again. Whether stringy lichen or flashy kinglet, someone is always at home in the Engelmann Inn.

It's an arrangement both Engelmann the doctor and Engelmann the botanist would no doubt approve.
