DUNKLE, Meryl Byron

M.B. Dunkle (Third from right) Long Beach, CA Pier 1, Berth 50, July 21, 1939

Biological Survey Team on Santa Barbara Island, 1939
(Left to Right) Theodore Reddick, Meryl B. Dunkle, Jack C. Von Bloeker, Lloyd Martin, James DeLong, and Russell Sprong.

DUNKLE, Meryl Byron (1888-1969), California botanist who began collected on Santa Catalina Island in 1928 while he was employed as principal of the Santa Catalina Island School in Avalon (1923-1932). Dunkle went on to collect extensively on all eight California Channel Islands. He organized an annual flower show in Avalon and served as president of the American Begonia Society. Dunkle was the field botanist for the Los Angeles County Museum Channel Islands Biological Survey from 1939 to 1941.

Dunkle married Ada Tiffany (1889-1973) and they had three children:

• Kathryn Dunkle [Sylvester] (c. 1913- )
• Robert O. Dunkle (c. 1916- )
• Theodore Meryl Dunkle (1920-1977) = Iola Semas (1926-2000)

M. B. Dunkle is listed at Metropole Avenue, telephone number 47-M in the 1924 Avalon Telephone Directory.

Botanist M. B. Dunkle named a San Clemente Island variety of Lotus after Hancock (Lotus argophyllus var. Hancockii) “because of his interest in scientific research, and because he has made possible the author’s botanical and ecological research on the Channel Islands.”

Dunkle collected on:

• Anacapa Island (1926)
• San Clemente Island
• San Miguel Island
• San Nicolas Island
• Santa Barbara Island (1939, 1940)
• Santa Catalina Island
• Santa Cruz Island
• Santa Rosa Island (1939)

» Dunkle, M. B. Contributions from the Los Angeles Museum Channel Islands biological survey, number 26 Flora of the Channel Islands in Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 39:133-134, 1940

» Dunkle, M. B. Contributions from the Los Angeles Museum Channel Islands biological survey, number 27 Flora of the Channel Islands National Monument [Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands] in Bulletin, Southern California Academy of Sciences 41(3):125-137, 1942

» Dunkle, M. B. Plant Ecology of the Channel Islands of California Publications of the Allan Hancock Pacific Expedition 13(3):247-386, 1950.

Island Collections~

ISLAND	COLLECTOR	INSTITUTION	DATE	NUMBER	SPECIMEN
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 15, 1940	NYBG-2067279	Corethrogyne filaginifolia var. latifolia	Plants
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 17, 1940	NYBG-1883599	Ambrosia chamissonis	Plants
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 18, 1940	NYBG-1899849	Baccharis pilularis subsp. consanguinea	Plants
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 18, 1940	NYBG-2067280	Corethrogyne filaginifolia var. latifolia	Plants
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 18, 1940	NYBG-2585471	Lotus scoparius	Plants
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 26, 1940	NYBG-1464697	Quercus tomentella	Plants
Anacapa Island	M. B. Dunkle	RSA	August 26, 1940	RSA-446674	Stachys bullata	Plants

San Clemente Island

4/2/1939 NMNH plants

ISLAND	COLLECTOR	INSTITUTION	DATE	NUMBER	SPECIMEN
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 3, 1939	NYBG-1455549	Petunia parviflora	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	DS	August 7, 1939	DS-705462	Pinus torreyana	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	RSA	August 7, 1939	RSA-384487	Pinus torreyana	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	SBBG	August 7, 1939	SBBG-38814	Pinus torreyana subsp. insularis	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	SD	August 7, 1939	SD-4758	Pinus torreyana subsp. insularis	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	SEINET	August 7, 1939	SD-4758	Pinus torreyana subsp. insularis	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	UCR	August 7, 1939	UCR-130193	Pinus torreyana subsp. insularis	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 9, 1939	NYBG-1464701	Quercus tomentella	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 9, 1939	NYBG-1899229	Baccharis douglasii	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 10, 1939	NYBG-1899230	Baccharis douglasii	Plants
Santa Rosa Island	M. B. Dunkle	NYBG	August 10, 1939	NYBG-1899851	Baccharis pilularis subsp. consanguinea	Plants

In the News~

December 31, 1924 [TI/Avalon]: “Miss Grace Dunkle is visiting her father, Prof. M. B. Dunkle, principal of the Catalina High School.“

”May 19, 1926 [TI/Avalon]: “Mr. V. F. Dunkle, aged 68, passed away last Thursday at the California Hospital, and was interred at Los Angeles Saturday. Mr. Dunkle was the father of Professor M. B. Dunkle, principal of the Catalina Public Schools. For some time Mr. Dunkle Sr. had been a resident of Avalon, and he had many friends in this city. In our next issue we hope to publish a short history of his life, which we have not been able to compile in time for this issue.“

July 22, 1939 [SBNP]: “Scientists sail for San Nicolas. The story of Juana Maria, the Indian woman who lived alone on San Nicolas Island for 18 years, is recalled with word that an expedition sailed from San Pedro yesterday for the Santa Barbara Channel to seek the home of the ‘female Robinson Crusoe of the Pacific.’ The story of Juana Maria is one of the most curious in all the history of this region. When the Indians were removed from the island to the mainland following an epidemic in 1835, Juana Maria was left behind. The story has it that she left the boat to find her baby and the boat sailed without her. The baby died, but Juana Maria lived there alone for 18 years, catching fish and birds for her food. She was taken off the island by the late Captain Nidever of Santa Barbara, a sea otter hunter and trapper, who brought her to his Santa Barbara home, but she died soon after. The expedition is led by Arthur Woodward, director of history and anthropology at the Los Angeles museum, and includes Captain C. H. Groat, Don Meadows, Jack Von Bloeker, Meryl B. Dunkle, Lloyd Martin, George Kanakoff, Russell Spring and Jewel Lewis.”