Paul Carpenter Standley

Clusia orthoneura, first described by Paul Carpenter Standley in 1940.[1]

Paul Carpenter Standley (March 21, 1884 – June 2, 1963) was an American botanist known for his work on neotropical plants.

Biography

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Standley was born on March 21, 1884, in Avalon, Missouri.[2] He attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and New Mexico State College, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1907, and received a master's degree from New Mexico State College in 1908. He remained at New Mexico State College as an assistant from 1908 to 1909. He was the assistant curator of the Division of Plants at the United States National Museum from 1909 to 1922.[3][4]

He wrote "Flora of Barro Colorado Island, Panama" in May 1927.[5]

In the spring of 1928, he took a position at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where worked until 1950. While at the Field Museum he did fieldwork in Guatemala between 1938 and 1941.[6] After his retirement in 1950, he moved to the Escuela Agricola Panamericana in Honduras, where he worked in the library and herbarium and did field work until 1956, when he stopped doing botanical work. In 1957 he moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he died on June 2, 1963.

He contributed to the Trees and Shrubs of Mexico, Flora of Guatemala, and Flora of Costa Rica.

Family

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His sister Penelope "Nellie" Standley was also a botanical collector.[7][better source needed]

Honours

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Three genera of plants have been named after him; in 1932, botanist Alexander Curt Brade published Standleya, which is a genus of flowering plants from Brazil, belonging to the family Rubiaceae.[8] Then in 1971, botanists R.M. King & H. Rob. published Standleyanthus, which is a genus of Central American plants in the boneset tribe within the sunflower family.[9][10] Lastly in 1993, botanist Frank Almeda published Stanmarkia, which is a genus of flowering plants from Mexico and Guatemala, belonging to the family Melastomataceae. The name also honours another American botanist Julian Alfred Steyermark (1909–1988).[11] He is also honoured in the naming of several species, including Simira standleyi.

There are 6439 names of plant species published by Standl.[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Tropicos - Name - Clusia orthoneura Standl".
  2. ^ Homage to Standley, p. 40
  3. ^ United States National Museum Division of Plants. "Records, 1902-1922". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  4. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol. 23, Trees and Shrubs of Mexico (1920) at Google Books
  5. ^ "Flora of Barro Colorado Island, Panama (Standley) | International Plant Names Index". www.ipni.org. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  6. ^ Standley, Paul Carpenter (1941). "FMNH Third Botanical Expedition to Guatemala, Notes". Field Museum Digital Collections. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  7. ^ Rose, Joseph Nelson (c. 1917). "Cacti, 1909 - 1917". transcription.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
  8. ^ "Standleya Brade | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  9. ^ D.J.N.Hind & H.E.Robinson. 2007. Tribe Eupatorieae In: The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants vol.VIII. (Joachim W.Kadereit & Charles Jeffrey, volume editors. Klaus Kubitzky, general editor). Springer-Verlag. Berlin, Heidelberg.
  10. ^ Tropicos, Standleyanthus R.M. King & H. Rob.
  11. ^ "Stanmarkia Almeda | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Standley, Paul Carpenter | International Plant Names Index". www.ipni.org. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  13. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Standl.
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