Illa Martin
Illa Martin, born Sybilla Kesselburg (* February 25, 1900 in Viersen, † August 6, 1988 ibid ) was a German Dendrologin, botanist, conservationist and dentist.
Life
Illa Martin, born Sybilla Kesselburg, was the daughter of Viersener brewery owner. She studied dentistry in Bonn, Würzburg and Freiburg 1935 and married dentist Ernst J. Martin, with whom she opened a common practice in Kaldenkirchen.
She brought from her parents' house with already botanical knowledge and interests. Both marriage partners began even during the Second World War to pursue their dendrologic inclinations. Her husband initiated the reforestation of the 1947 spent Kaldenkirchener frontier forest.
In 1951, the couple Martin Sequoia Farm Kaldenkirchen. It was possible to send from the U.S. seed from the giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum). As early as 1953 have been maintained with the support of the German Research Foundation in 1500 two years copies of the giant sequoia tree beside coast redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) and other species. A research objective was to examine the possibilities for the introduction of these trees in the German forestry. Illa Martin tried to make a corresponding diverse flora thrive in the bottom area of the trees, for example, the American Asarum caudatum Haselwurz beneath the giant redwoods. Today, the Sequoia Farm is a known arboretum with over 600 tree and shrub species and contains the 1953 scale Sequoia sempervirens grove next to the Sequoia sempervirens - occurrence in the state forest Burgholzhausen one of the very few larger coastal redwood holdings north of the Alps.
After her husband's death (1967 ) Illa Martin was the continuation of the economic Sequoia Farm impossible, which is why they the site in late 1969 with buildings at the University of Education, Rhineland ( now the University of Cologne) sold; now the site is owned by the city works Nettetal. You now devoted himself entirely to the dendrologic research, wrote three basic tree - monographs and volunteered in many areas of nature conservation to speak. She was a member of the German Dendrological Society, led by woody courses on the Sequoia farm and for many years was a permanent council member of the International Dendrology Society ( London).
As a botanist of the Lower Rhine Flora Illa Martin discovered, which occurs only in the shifting sand dunes of the German -Dutch border area in the Lower Rhine Gold Sleep moss ( Hypnum imponens ) in the Installed moorlands, which were then declared 1986 a nature reserve. A discovered by her form of native forest strawberry with white fruit is listed as Fragaria vesca ' Illa Martin '. The city Nettetal named after the couple Martin 1983 a walk in Kaldenkirchener border forest, " Dr. Martin Way."
The couple had two sons and one daughter, including the author and songwriter Erik Martin and the lawyer and expert Helge Breloer.
Writings
From Illa Martin in addition to numerous professional articles three major monographs in the yearbooks release news Dendrological society appeared:
- Propagation and cultivation of Nothofagus in Germany. In: Volume 70 pp. 147-166. Ulmer. Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-8001-8302-1
- The reintroduction of the sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the German forestry. In: Volume 75 pp. 57-75. Ulmer. Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-8308-0
- The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens ) and its cultivation in Germany. In: Volume 77 pp. 57-104. Ulmer. Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8001-8310-2