Charles Schweinfurth

For the architect, his uncle, see Charles F. Schweinfurth.

Charles Schweinfurth (13 April 1890 16 November 1970) was an American botanist and plant collector who distinguished himself by his studies on orchids.[1] He predominately collected species from Peru which he described in his four volume reference work Orchids of Peru (1958). He was a researcher at the Botanical Museum of Harvard University, and director of the Ames Orchid Herbarium where, in 1958, he was succeeded by Leslie Andrew Garay.[2]

Life

Schweinfurth was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1890, the son of Mary Frances and Julius Adolf Schweinfurth, a noted architect.[3] In 1909 Schweinfurth entered Harvard University where he majored in chemistry, although his course work included several biology courses such as taxonomic botany. Despite a bout with polio which left his right arm slightly paralyzed, he graduated cum laude in 1913, and entered Harvard garduate school.[4]

In 1914 he took a job tending the living orchid collections of a Harvard professor, Oakes Ames. Ames recognized his intelligence and abilities and took him on as his personal assistant. Soon he had acquired the skills of a dedicated orchidologist. Ames had him doing independent work on the orchids of the Philippines, of Mt. Kinabalu on Borneo and on some from various Pacific islands. Subsequently he worked on the orchids of Central America, notably Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. In 1922, James Francis Macbride invited him to join the "Flora of Peru Project", and Schweinfurth took on the Orchidaceae for his part. This eventually led to his magnum opus the Orchids of Peru[5]

Selected publications

Books

Honors and hommages

The following plants have been named after Schweinfurth in his honour:

Genera
Species

References

  1. Brummitt, Richard K. and Powell, C. Emma (1992). Authors of Plant Names. London: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. p. 578. ISBN 978-0-947643-44-7.
  2. Schultes, Richard Evans (1958). "Garay appointed curator of Ames Orchid Herbarium". American Orchid Society Bulletin 27: 583–584.
  3. "Schweinfurth Art Center History". Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center. Archived from the original on 1 January 2007.
  4. Schultes, Richard Evans (1970). "Charles Schweinfurth, 18901970, An Appreciation" (PDF). Botanical Museum Leaflets 23: 9399. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 May 2014.
  5. 1 2 Lankester Botanical Garden (2010). "Biographies" (PDF). Lankesteriana 10 (2/3): 183206, page 183. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 May 2014.
  6. Dressler, Robert Louis and Williams, Norris H. (1970). "An overlooked genus in the Oncidiinae". American Orchid Society Bulletin 39 (11): 988994, page 991.
  7. Szlachetko, Dariusz and Margonska, Hanna B. (2001). "Genera et Species Ochidalium, 3". Polish Botanical Journal 46 (2): 113121, page 118. Archived from the original on 31 May 2014.
  8. Garay, Leslie Andrew (1954). "Illustrations of new or critical Orchids, Pleurothallis schweinfurthii sp.nov.". Orchid Journal (California) 3 (4): 188189.
  9. "Author Query for 'C.Schweinf.'". International Plant Names Index.

External links

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