A Tribute to Weeds: Henry Eilers (1934–2024)

We have lost another of our grand old members. Henry “Weeds” Eilers was my wonderful friend for more than 50 years. I invited him to join IOS in November of 1999, just five years after our initial 1994 meeting and in time to make our 3rd Conference in North Carolina, but he was called away and could not attend that first time. He was my roommate in the out-of-country Conference he could attend, in Mexico in 2009, and his first overseas Conference, the next one, in France in 2012. He also helped Alana and me organize and conduct the week-long Pre-Conference Tour en route to the 2015 Conference, a repeat at the Morton Arboretum. Many of you were there.

He and I always stayed together during our oak trips in places like Turkey, China, Mexico, and multiple US locations. We all were looking for oaks, but he also included every other plant we encountered no matter how small, and he knew (or learned) and taught them all.  When some of us were wistfully staring one day at some acorns far out on an oak limb overlooking a deep gorge, Weeds climbed the tree hanging out over the gorge and threw them back to us. At that time he already was by far the oldest person on the trip!

Where did he acquire his famous nickname “Weeds”? We were in western China, climbing a steep hill to find oaks at about 11,000 feet (3,400 meters) in the Himalayas, and our leader looked behind me and became alarmed: “GUY – HENRY SICK!” I looked behind me and Henry was down on all fours with his face near the ground. But he was looking at a tiny ground plant with a magnifier. I laughed with relief, “He’s just looking at weeds!” At the next stop, our first van stopped and the guide jumped out next to a giant orchid. He screamed to the other van: “Henry, Weed! Henry, Weed!” Everyone thought he was calling Henry a weed, and he never escaped that name in the decades that followed. If you have my recent tree book from the last Conference, look for the name Weeds on page 9.

During our flight back from the Mexico Conference later, our plane had taxied out but was delayed for a long time at the airport waiting to take off.  Everyone was restless, so I went up to the front (“for a drink”) and secretly told the pilot about the famous botanist Weeds Eilers in seat 30-A who was returning from dangerous scientific expeditions all over the southern part of the country. The pilot was grateful for anything to gain the tourists' attention and he made a big announcement about a famous botanist. That got Weeds’ attention, until the pilot named him, “Weeds Eilers”, in seat 30-A.  The lady across the aisle leaned in front of me (in the aisle seat) and asked for his autograph. He almost fainted! But it suddenly was a fun take-off.

These stories could go on forever. But you should know that he was born Heinrich Helmut Eilers in Germany in 1934. He lost his father Heinrich during the war, but even during those early stressful times in Germany, he was always wandering through wild areas learning plants. He came to the US in 1955 after studying horticulture in Oldenburg and apprenticing at a greenhouse firm in nearby Bad Zwischenahn. He began working in greenhouses in Litchfield Illinois, where he spent the rest of his life. There he met and married his wife Ursula, who he met while walking in the woods. He had become a US citizen, served the military for two years, and founded his own nursery. Eventually, he was elected as the state chairman of the Illinois Nursery Association. He led the preservation of some rare natural areas, one of which was named for him, and his interest and knowledge of plants carried him, and many of us, through his life. Some of his final words on his deathbed were “No work, no worries, just me and nature, those are my best relaxing days.” I had driven to Litchfield to see him one more time, as shown in the photo below, just a couple of weeks before he died.

I will always miss Weeds, and many of you also knew and appreciated him. I have been assigned to write a book about his days with our Illinois Native Plant Society—I don’t know yet where to begin. But if you ever see it for sale someday be sure to buy it and remember him.

Further reading

• Henry contributed an article in International Oaks No. 22, about managing oaks woodlands in the Henry Eilers Shoal Creek Conservation Area:

"Managing Change in an Illinois Oak Woodland"

• A Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan) cultivar discovered by Henry bears his name:

Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eilers'