German-born physician in the USA. Hermann E. Hasse was an important amateur lichenologist in later life, collecting particularly intensively in California and publishing on the lichen flora of that state. Born in Freiburg, Saxony, his family immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when he was just nine years old. About ten years later he began to work for a druggist who sparked an interest in chemistry and botany in the youngster and he went on to attend the medical school in St. Louis, Missouri. One year later, however, he returned to Europe in order to continue his medical training. First in Leipzig, Germany (1857-1860), he then studied in Prague and Wurzburg where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1861.
Hasse returned to Milwaukee at the beginning of the American Civil War and he enlisted as a surgeon, serving in both the 9th and 24th Wisconsin Infantry Regiments. Following the war he opened a private practice in Milwaukee before moving to Arkansas and Missouri where he continued his medical work. Finally he moved to California, settling first in Los Angeles (1885-1889) before moving to Santa Monica where he was named chief surgeon at the Soldier's Home.
From 1880 Hasse had been interested in lichens and once based in California he began to collect on holiday trips to the hills and canyons of its southern counties. After his retirement in 1905 he was able to dedicate his time fully to lichenology and was by that time publishing regular articles on this group in southern California, particularly in the journal The Bryologist. Hasse's most important work was his Lichen Flora of Southern California, published in 1913. With his specimens sent mainly to European experts for identification, many represented previously undescribed species and subsequently numerous lichens now bear the specific epithet hassei, as does the fungal genus Hassea, named by Dr Alexander Zahlbruckner.
Sources:
B. Fink, 1916, "Hermann Edward Hasse: Lichenologist", Mycologia 8(5): 243-248
C.C. Plitt, 1915, "Dr. Hermann Edward Hasse", The Bryologist 19(2): 30-33.
