Hunt, Trevor Edgar (1913 - 1970)

Trevor Hunt was a teacher in Ipswich for many years. He spent a period on a pineapple farm in North Queensland before returning to teaching at Yeronga High School in Brisbane. Hunt at the was a proficient artist and a competent botanist who taught pharmaceutical botany University of Queensland.

He corresponded regularly with Rev. H.M.R. Rupp over two decades, producing several joint papers including A Review of the Genus Dendrobium (Orchidaceae) in Australia (1947) and A Review of the Genus Bulbophyllum (Orchidaceae) in Australia (1949).

In 1943 Trevor Hunt's brother (R. Hunt) sent him a specimen from the Atherton Tableland which Hunt sent on to H.M.R. Rupp. A lively correspondence followed in which Hunt and Rupp referred to the specimen as 'hookey leaf' until in 1946 Rupp described it as a new genus and species naming it Mobilabium hamatum.

Hunt described at least 14 new species, two new varieties and a new genus (Peristeranthus) from North Queensland and was the author of A Census of South Queensland Orchids (1947). Three of the new species (Taeniophyllum wilkianum, Bulbophyllum wilkianun and Dendrobium giddinsii) were named after the collectors who sent him the specimens, but all three are now considered to be synonyms.

Source: Extracted from: Laverack, Bill (2013) 'With Strange Device: A history of the discovery of Tropical Australia's Orchids', (Australian Orchid Foundation), Peter S. Laverack, Buderim, Qld
Portrait Photo: Extracted from: above publication

Collecting localities for 'Hunt, T.E.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 334 specimens