Paul Stefan Vogel (1925Œ2015) - University of Missouri

Paul Stefan Vogel (1925Œ2015) - University of Missouri

Plant Systematics World
TAXON 65 (1) • February 2016: 203–209
PLANT SYSTEMATICS WORLD
Edited by Vicki Funk
PAUL STEFAN VOGEL (1925–2015)
Stefan Vogel was among the most important pollination biologists of the 20th century. He discovered two new classes of pollinator rewards, namely floral perfumes for male euglossine bees
(Vogel, 1963) and fatty oils for female anthophorid and ctenoplectrid
bees (Vogel, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1984, 1986, 1990). He put forth
new interpretations for the evolution of deception (Vogel, 1978)
and the evolution of trap flowers (Vogel, 1961; Vogel & Martens,
2000), and—mirroring Darwin’s (1862) prediction of the existence
of a long-tongued moth on Madagascar, which was then discovered
some 40 years later (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903)—he predicted the
existence of a bee with 2.5 cm long forelegs that would be inserted
into the paired floral spurs of Diascia longicornis to collect their
oil exudates (Vogel, 1984). The bee was discovered and described as
Rediviva emdeorum Vogel & Michener (1985). In a striking coincidence, Charles Michener, a distinguished bee evolutionary ecologist
who was Vogel’s collaborator on the Rediviva story, passed away
on 1 November 2015, four days before Stefan Vogel, who died in
the evening of November 5.
Stefan Vogel in El Durazno, Prov. Córdoba, Argentina, probably April 1991.
Photo by A. Coccuci.
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12705/651.28
Stefan Vogel was born in Dresden on April 4, 1925 and finished high school in 1944. After a short time as a soldier in Poland,
he returned to Dresden and worked as a technical draftsman in
an arms factory (S. Vogel, pers. comm., 2015). In 1947, Vogel
moved to Mainz where he studied biology, focusing on botany
under Wilhelm Troll and animal physiology under Wolfgang von
Buddenbrock (Weber & Sontag, 2006; Vogel, 2007). He received
his doctoral degree in 1949, with a dissertation on flower color
change during ontogeny (Vogel, 1950). A formative experience was
a one-year trip to South Africa (1950–1951), and the observations
made there on Cape orchids became Vogel’s habilitation theses at
the University of Mainz in 1958 (Vogel, 1959a, b). Another publication based on the work in South Africa (Vogel, 1954) constitutes
a landmark for pollination research (Johnson, 2012 in his introduction to the English translation: Vogel, 2012). Its importance
lies not only in the rich empirical data on the floral adaptations
of dozens of species in many families, but also in the conceptual
framework, which is a detailed formalization of the pollination
syndrome concept. Vogel traces the historical development of the
floral syndrome concept from the time it was first proposed by
Federico Delpino in the nineteenth century, through to the second
half of the twentieth century. His exhaustive knowledge of the
literature is evident here as in all his publications.
Vogel’s contributions on floral perfumes as rewards for male
euglossine bees are among his most fundamental discoveries, and
an English translation (Vogel, 1990) of his 1963 work, titled The
role of scent glands in pollination, became widely cited. The sheer
wealth of facts it assembled (240 species, mostly Araceae and
orchids, are discussed), the excellent drawings and photographs of
floral morphology and anatomy, and Vogel’s ingenious use of simple
analytical methods, assure that this book will remain an important
source of information. For the historian of science it is indicative of
the anti-Darwinian mood that persisted in Germany until the early
1960s that Vogel should think it necessary to build an elaborate case
for the interpretation of floral fragrances as adaptations instead of
mere products of the plant’s physiology.
Stefan Vogel also studied pollination by bats, birds, fungusgnats, and butterflies (one of his films treats this syndrome), produced key papers on the morphology and function of nectar glands
and other floral features, and published on leaf function and ant–
plant interactions. A list of his papers published from 1950 to 2005
can be found in Weber & Sontag (2006), those published afterwards
will appear in Stapfia (Weber & Pfosser, 2015).
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Plant Systematics World
TAXON 65 (1) • February 2016: 203–209
Stefan Vogel was elected a corresponding member of the
American Botanical Society in 2002/2003, based on nomination
letters by Spencer Barrett, Peter Endress, David Inouye, James
Thomson, Nickolas Waser, and myself. On the occasion of his 80th
birthday, the journal Flora, on whose editorial board Vogel served
for 40 years, put together a Festschrift (Weber, 2006), and Taxon
published “A floral biologist’s past fifty years” (Vogel, 2007). I was
fortunate to have professor Vogel as the external examiner of my
doctoral thesis (he also came for the defense, but I can’t remember
if he asked a question), and our paths later crossed again at the
University of Mainz (he lived there 1981–1994 and was a member of
the Mainz Academy of Sciences), in St. Louis (in 1999), in Vienna,
and in Munich, where Stefan gave a seminar on trap flowers in
November 2004. On this occasion, his wife Ilse accompanied him.
During their younger years, she stayed at home, raising their three
children and working as a teacher. Vogel paid her loving tribute at
the end of his “Fifty years” reminiscence (Vogel, 2007).
As a uniquely perceptive observer of plants and their function,
Stefan loved to be in the field. At the same time, he was proud to
have published at least one paper every year since 1950, and even
though the series was interrupted in 2013 and 2014, Stefan was
examining the proofs of a manuscript just days before his passing
(A. Weber, University of Vienna, pers. comm.; Vogel, [Dec] 2015).
To all his correspondents and field companions – perhaps especially
those from Argentina and Brazil – Stefan was both a friend and an
invaluable teacher and collaborator. His loss will be deeply felt by
flower ecologists worldwide.
Literature cited
Darwin, C.R. 1862. On the various contrivances by which British and
foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and the good effects of
intercrossing. London: John Murray.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1862_Orchids_F800.pdf
Rothschild, W. & Jordan, K. 1903. A revision of the lepidopterous family Sphingidae. Novitates Zoologicae 9, Suppl. 2. Tring: Zoological
Museum. http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.5651
Vogel, S. 1950. Farbwechsel und Zeichnungsmuster bei Blüten. Österr.
Bot. Z. 97: 44–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01248384
Vogel, S. 1954. Blütenbiologische Typen als Elemente der Sippengliederung, dargestellt anhand der Flora Südafrikas. Botanische Studien l. Jena: Fischer.
Vogel, S. 1959a. Organographie der Blüten kapländischer Ophrydeen,
mit Bemerkungen zum Koaptations-Problem. Teil I: Disinae
und Satyriinae. Abh. Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. Akad. Wiss. Mainz 6:
267–378.
Vogel, S. 1959b. Organographie der Blüten kapländischer Ophrydeen,
mit Bemerkungen zum Koaptations-Problem. Teil II: Disperidinae;
Theorie der Koaptationen. Abh. Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. Akad. Wiss.
Mainz 7: 379–532.
Vogel, S. 1961. Die Bestäubung der Kesselfallenblumen von Ceropegia.
Beitr. Biol. Pflanzen 36: 159–237.
Vogel, S. 1963. Duftdrüsen im Dienste der Bestäubung: Über Bau und
Funktion der Osmophoren. Abh. Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. Akad. Wiss.
Mainz 10: 600–763.
204
Vogel, S. 1969. Flowers offering fatty oil instead of nectar. P. 229 in:
Abstracts of the papers presented at the XI International Botanical
Congress, August 24–September 2, 1969, Seattle.
Vogel, S. 1971. Ölproduzierende Blumen, die durch ölsammelnde
Bienen bestäubt werden. Naturwissenschaften 58: 58.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00620817
Vogel, S. 1974. Ölblumen und ölsammelnde Bienen. Trop. Subtrop.
Pflanzenwelt 7: 283–547.
Vogel, S. 1976. Lysimachia: Ölblumen der Holarktis. Naturwissenschaften 63: 44–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00768691
Vogel, S. 1978. Evolutionary shifts from reward to deception in pollen flowers. Pp. 89–96 in: Richards, A.J. (ed.), The pollination of
flowers by insects. London: Academic Press.
Vogel, S. 1984. The Diascia flower and its bee – An oil-based symbiosis
in southern Africa. Acta Bot. Neerl. 33: 509–518.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1438-8677.1984.tb01842.x
Vogel, S. 1986. Ölblumen und ölsammelnde Bienen – zweite Folge: Lysi­
machia und Macropis. Trop. Subtrop. Pflanzenwelt 54: 147–312.
Vogel, S. 1990. The role of scent glands in pollination. English translation, ed. S. Renner, of: Vogel, S. 1963. Duftdrüsen im Dienste der
Bestäubung. Abh. Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. Akad. Wiss. Mainz 10:
600–763. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Libraries;
New Delhi: Amerind.
Vogel, S. 1990. Ölblumen und ölsammelnde Bienen. Dritte Folge.
Momor­dica, Thladiantha und die Ctenoplectridae. Trop. Subtrop.
Pflanzenwelt 73: 1–186.
Vogel, S. 2007. A floral biologist’s past fifty years: Some thoughts and experiences. Taxon 56: 660–662. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25065852
Vogel, S. 2012. Floral-biological syndromes as elements of diversity
within tribes in the Flora of South Africa. English translation, ed.
K.B. Johnson & S.D. Johnson, of: Vogel, S. 1954. Blütenbiologische Typen als Elemente der Sippengliederung, dargestellt anhand der Flora Südafrikas. Botanische Studien l. Aachen: Shaker.
Vogel, S. 2015. Vertebrate pollination in Compositae: Floral syndromes
and field observations. Stapfia 103: 5–26.
http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/STAPFIA_0103_0005-0026.pdf
Vogel, S. & Martens, J. 2000. A survey of the function of the lethal
kettle traps of Arisaema (Araceae), with records of pollinating
fungus gnats from Nepal. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 133: 61–100.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2000.tb01537.x
Vogel, S. & Michener, C.D. 1985. Long bee legs and oil producing floral spurs, and a new Rediviva (Hymenoptera, Melittidae; Scrophulariaceae). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 58: 359–364.
Weber, A. (ed.) 2006. Festschrift Prof. Dr. Stefan Vogel. Flora 201:
331–418.
Weber, A. & Pfosser, M. 2015. Stefan Vogel (1925 – 2015). Stapfia 103:
3–4. http://www.zobodat.at/pdf/STAPFIA_0103_0003-0004.pdf
Weber, A. & Sontag, S. 2006. Stefan Vogel: A life devoted to floral
ecology. Flora 201: 331–339.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2006.03.001
Susanne S. Renner
Systematic Botany and Mycology, University of Munich (LMU),
Menzingerstr. 67, 80638 Munich; [email protected]
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