Catcheside, Pamela S. (Pam)   (fl.1990s - 2000s)

Born in the UK in

She did her BSc science degree in London.

She started teaching in 1961 in London and, after marrying, in Birmingham with senior biology and general science classes at a girls high school. She stopped teaching when her daughter was born and the young family came to South Australia.

When her son was old enough, Catcheside went back to teaching at Woodlands Church of England Girls Grammar School at Adelaide's Glenelg in 1974 and stayed there for 25 years until it was closed down in 1998.

It was very emotional and sad when the school closed. It took a while for me to recover. By then, I had turned 58 and the syllabus for biology was about to change. I didn't want to start again, at a new school, with a new syllabus.

Before she stopped teaching, she'd resumed her interest in fungi and was active from 1997 in Fungimap, a citizen-science group to advance knowledge of, and conserve, Australia's fungi.

She kept in touch with a botanist she knew at the state herbarium and started working there on fungi. She converted her hobby collecting fungi into concentrated study that enabled her, in her sixties in 2002, to become a research associate at the herbarium. During the 'fungal season' from late May to late August, she went into the field, bush and forest to collect fungi, then document, preserve and deposit them into the herbarium.

She made almost 5,000 collections over the next 20 years and found around 20 new species.

She was helped by husband David, a Flinders Universite professor in areas such as genetics, forensic science and fungal biology, on the extensive work needed to describe new species. Catcheside became expert in a group of fungi called the ascomycetes, along with a special interest in truffles (ascomycete and basidiomycete) and desert fungi.

Source: Extracted from:
https://adelaideaz.com/articles/pam-catcheside-leaves-teaching-at-58-to-forge-new-mission-in-south-australia-to-save-fungi-
https://www.saenvironmentawards.org.au/pam_catcheside
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/06/never-too-late-how-a-retired-teachers-fungi-hobby-led-to-her-finding-20-new-species
The Fungi of Kangaroo Island, and beyond: an illustrated guide to the larger fungi of southern Australia. Catcheside, Pamela S. and David E.A. Catcheside, (2024).
Portrait Photo: 2025, https://www.saenvironmentawards.org.au/pam_catcheside

Collecting localities for 'Catcheside, P.S.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 2,468 specimens