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Botanists

Theophrastus (371 BC - 287


BC), ancient Greek
scientist: father of botany.
Abu Hanifa ad-Dinawari
(828 AD -896 AD) PersianMuslim polymath,
astronomer and botanist:
founder of Arabic botany.
Leonhart Fuchs (1501
1566), German physician:
wrote about the medicinal
uses of plants.
Carl Linnaeus (17071778):
Swedish botanist, the father
of modern taxonomy.
David Douglas (1799
1834): Scottish botanical
explorer of North America
and China, who imported
many ornamental plants
into Europe
Charles Darwin (1809 1882), English naturalist
and father of evolution
theory by natural selection:
showed that orchid's
beauty was honed by
natural selection to attract
insect cross-pollinators.
Gregor Johann Mendel
(18221884), Austrian
scientist: father of genetics
for his study of the
inheritance of traits in pea
plants.
Richard Spruce (1817
1893): English botanist and
explorer who carried out a
detailed study of the
Amazon flora.
Luther Burbank (1849
1926): American botanist,
horticulturist, and a pioneer
in agricultural science.
Charles Sprague Sargent
(18411927): American

botanist, the first director of


the Arnold Arboretum at
Harvard University.
George Washington Carver
(1864 - 1943), American
Botanist: developed peanut
crops and products;
developed methods of crop
rotation.
Barbara McClintock (1902 1992), American botanist:
genetic structure of maize.
George Ledyard Stebbins
(19062000), American
botanist and geneticist:
developed a comprehensive
synthesis of plant evolution
incorporating genetics.
Isabella Abbott (1919
2010), Hawaiian
ethnobotanist: world's
leading expert on Hawaiian
seaweeds.
Eduardo Quisumbing Filipino Botanist:
Filipino botanist, Eduardo
Quisumbing was a noted
expert in the medicinal
plants of the Philippines. He
was author of more than
129 scientific articles. many
on orchids. Eduardo
Quisumbing served as the
Director of the National
Museum of the Philippines,
where he rebuilt the
Herbarium. The plant
"saccolabium quisumbingii"
is named in honor of
Eduardo Quisumbing.
Plant Gender
Over the course of three
years, from 1691 to 1694,
German botanist and
physician Rudolf Jakob
Camerarius discovered that
plants, or plant parts, can
be either male or female.
When he removed the male

flowers on one plant, the


plant produced no seeds.
He then fertilized another
plant using pollen from the
removed flowers, and the
second plant produced
seeds. Therefore, he
learned, the stamens could
be considered the male
sexual organs and the pistil
the female sexual organs of
the plant. At the time, this
was one of the most
profound observations
made in the field of botany.
Taxonomy
Augustin Pyrame de
Candolle, a Swiss botanist,
developed a standard plant
classification system in
1813. His system used
plant anatomy rather than
plant physiology. Therefore,
he developed the structural
criteria needed to separate
plants into different genera
and species. The first
explanation of this
classification system,
considered to be the start
of plant taxonomy, was
published in Candolle's
book "Theorie elementaire
de la botanique."
Cell Nucleus
Scottish botanist Robert
Brown discovered the
nucleus of the cell in the
1830s when observing
orchids under a microscope.
He determined there was
only one nucleus in each
cell and, while it was not
fixed in a specific location,
it tended to be in the center
of the cell. Once he
discovered the nucleus in
the orchid cells, he also
found it in many other
monocotyledonous plants
and even in some
dicotyledonous plants. His
discovery was published in
"The Miscellaneous

Botanical Works of Robert


Brown" in 1866.
Photosynthesis
The discovery of
photosynthesis occurred in
1779 by a Dutch physician,
Jan Ingenhousz, who took a
leave of absence from his
physician job and
conducted a series of
experiments on plants
when he was in England. He
placed plants in clear
containers and then
submerged them. He saw
that the undersides of the
leaves produced bubbles
when the plants were
receiving sunlight. He
eventually discovered that
this gas was oxygen,
although the entire
mechanism of
photosynthesis was not
discovered until much later.
Carlo Allioni (23 September
1728 in Turin 30 July 1804
in Turin) was an Italian
physician and professor of
botany at the University of
Turin.[1] His most important

work was Flora


Pedemontana, sive
enumeratio methodica
stirpium indigenarum
Pedemontii[citation needed] 1755,
a study of the plant world in
Piedmont, in which he listed
2813 species of plants, of
which 237 were previously
unknown.[citation needed] In
1766, he published the
Manipulus Insectorum
Tauriniensium.
David Hungerford Ashton
OAM (6 July 1927 22
November 2005) was an
Australian botanist and
ecologist. He was the world
expert on Eucalyptus
regnans forests, claimed to
be the most important
timber species in Australia.
James Eustace Bagnall ALS
(7 November 1830 3
September 1918) was an
English naturalist with a
particular interest in
botany, especially bryology.
He was the author of the
first Flora of Warwickshire

(VC38) in 1891. A noted


bryologist, he wrote the
Handbook of Mosses in the
Young Collector Series,
various editions of which
were published between
1886 and 1910. His
botanical author
abbreviation is "Bagn."
John Bartram (March 23,
1699 September 22,
1777) was an early
American botanist,
horticulturist and explorer.
Bartram, sometimes called
the "father of American
Botany",[4] was one of the
first practicing Linnaean
botanists in North America.
His plant specimens were
forwarded to Linnaeus,
Dillenius and Gronovius,
and he assisted Linnaeus'
student Pehr Kalm during
his extended collecting trip
to North America in 17481750.

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