Koncordie Amalie Dietrich was a German naturalist who was best known for her pioneering work inAustralia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg.
Career
Amalie Dietrich was born in Siebenlehn, Saxony, German Confederation. In 1846, she married Wilhelm August Salomo Dietrich, a doctor. With no formal training she learnt all she could from him about collecting and they planned careers working as naturalists. Between 1845 and 1862 they made a precarious living collecting Alpine specimens to sell to chemists for medicines and to museums for their natural history collections. Some of the delicate alpine flowers she collected in this period can be seen on display in the Natural History Museum in Freiburg. It appears Wilhelm began spending most of his time mounting the specimens and the collecting fell to Amalie. This meant long, lonely, periods away from home which were made even worse after her only child, Charitas, was born in 1848. Her husband refused to look after his daughter, who she was boarded out to strangers, and, in 1859, left to fend for herself. Finally in 1861 her husband was discovered having an affair and she broke with him completely. She collected the type specimens of many species, and in a number of cases the author of the description honoured her in the species epithet. Species whose type specimens she collected include: Aongstroemia dietrichiae Müll.Hal. - Dicranella dietrichiae A.Jaeger Laxmannia illicebrosa Rchb.f. - a synonym of Laxmannia gracilis R.Br. Marsdenia hemiptera Rchb. Fissidens dietrichiae Müll.Hal. Macromitrium sordidevirens Müll.Hal. - Macromitrium aurescens Hampe Sargassum aciculareGrunow - Sargassum filifolium var. aciculare Grunow Sargassum amaliae Grunow - accepted Sargassum godeffroyi Grunow - accepted Schoenus elatus Boeck. - Schoenus falcatus R.Br. Scirpus dietrichiae Boeck. - Lipocarpha microcephala Kunth Scleria dietrichiae Boeck. - Scleria levis Retz. Scleria novae-hollandiae Boeck. - Scleria laxa R.Br. Carex dietrichiae Boeck. - Carex indica L.
Her collections formed the basis of Zur Flora von Queensland'' by Christian Luerssen. While in Australia, she visited Ferdinand von Mueller, and in 1881 Mueller acquired a set of her specimens from Luerssen. She published nothing in her name. However, her collections continue to be an important resource in herbaria around the world. Dietrich Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in recognition of her work in Australia.
