Bleeser, Florenz August Karl (1871 - 1942)

Bleeser was born at Woodside, in the Adelaide Hills, S.A., on 5 July 1871 and died at Malvern, Adelaide on 1 November 1942.

He was appointed to the staff of the Australian Post Office on 1 September 1884; in 1889 he was promoted and transferred to Darwin where he was later Assistant Postmaster. For the rest of his working life, Bleeser remained in Darwin and besides making valuable plant collections, he and his wife also entertained and assisted visiting scientists. After the first air raid on Darwin in February 1942 Bleeser and his wife were evacuated to Adelaide.

Possibly influenced by his father who, as a very young man, is reported to have accompanied the botanist Dr R. M. Schomburgk on journeys in British Guiana 1840-44, Bleeser began making botanical collections soon after being posted to Darwin. He sent plant material to Kew, the National Herbarium in Melbourne, the Berlin Herbarium and some specimens to Blakely, in Sydney. Unfortunately, the material sent to Berlin has been reported to have been destroyed, whilst all his natural history collections and the bush-house of orchids which he had to leave behind in Darwin were also destroyed by looters. One writer expressed the opinion that Bleeser would have made his greatest contribution in a science laboratory, since he had added more than any other man (at that time) to the natural history around Darwin. Apart from the eucalypt (E. bleeseri Blakely (1927) ), Bleeser was commemorated by at least one orchid and two grasses being named after him.

Source: Hall, N. (1978) Botanists of the Eucalypts. CSIRO, Melbourne.

Post office worker in Adelaide from Sept. 1884; transferred to Palmerston [Darwin] May 1890; returned 1931; evacuated to Adelaide 19 Feb. 1942.

Collected natural history specimens extensively in northern N.T.

In 1927 Otto Schwarz described 43 new taxa from his specimens from the Darwin area.

Specimens (numbered) at K, MEL (donation rec. 1928-29), NSW (and B but probably destroyed there in 1943); his private collection in Darwin also destroyed after he left.

Commemorated in Alectryon, Chilochista, Eragrostis, Eriachne, Eucalyptus, Eugenia, Ptychosperma

Source: George, A.S. (2009) Australian Botanist's Companion, Four Gables Press, WA. [consult for source references]