William McCalla facts for kids

William McCalla (1814–1849) was an Irish naturalist. A naturalist is someone who studies nature, like plants and animals. He was also a schoolmaster. McCalla lived in a place called Roundstone, County Galway, Ireland. He loved studying the natural world around him.

A Life Studying Nature

William McCalla was a schoolmaster in Roundstone, County Galway. But his real passion was natural history. He studied many different parts of nature. He even had his own private museum. This museum likely held many of the interesting things he found.

McCalla was very good at finding and collecting plants. He collected plant specimens for other important scientists. These included David Moore, John Scouler, and Thomas Coulter. He also recorded information about birds. His bird notes are often mentioned in a famous book called Natural History of Ireland.

Discovering New Plants and Seaweeds

McCalla spent a lot of time collecting algae and flowering plants. Algae are simple plant-like organisms, often found in water. His records of these plants were included in a well-known book called Phycologia Britannica.

Some of the plants he collected are now kept in museums. You can find his specimens in the Ulster Museum and Trinity College Dublin. These collections help scientists learn more about plants from the past.

The Erica mackaiana Plant

In 1835, William McCalla made an exciting discovery. He found a new type of heather plant. He shared this plant with another scientist named Mackay. This new heather was named Erica mackaiana after Mackay.

What makes this plant special is how rare it is. It is found in only two places in the world. One place is the Roundstone area in Ireland. The other place is in the mountains of Castile and Asturia in Spain.

The Cladophora macallana Seaweed

Another type of plant was named after McCalla. This was a kind of seaweed called Cladophora macallana. It was named by a scientist named William Henry Harvey. Today, this seaweed is known by a different name, Cladophora lehmanniana.

McCalla's Algae Collection

The Ulster Museum has a large collection of algae that William McCalla gathered. This collection includes two special albums. The first album has 75 different algae specimens. The second album has 50 specimens. He also collected two lichen specimens. Many of these algae came from Roundstone Bay in County Galway.

Recognition and Legacy

William McCalla's hard work was recognized in 1845. The Royal Dublin Society gave him a silver award medal. This was for his important publication called Algae Hibernicae. This publication was about the algae found in Ireland.

His life and work are also described in a book. The book is called Connemara: Listening to the Wind. It was written by Tim Robinson.