António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva

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António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva (c. 1980).

António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva (Porto, March 13, 1912 - Lisbon, September 28, 1992), often referred to as A.R. Pinto da Silva or P.Silva, was a Portuguese botanist who distinguished himself as a taxonomist and phytosociologist. In 1937 he graduated in agricultural engineering at Instituto Superior de Agronomia. His studies on taxonomy and floristic yielded a substantial number of new taxa and a better knowledge about many plants and its nomenclature. He organized the Estação Agronómica Nacional's (National Agronomic Station) herbarium, which he rose from 3000 to almost 100 000 entries. He was a pioneer on ethnobotany studies in Portugal and published several contributions on vernacular nomenclature of Portuguese flora, cultivated plants and popular use of wild plants as food. For half a century he helped archaeologists, having published numerous works on paleoethnobotany, among more than 300 articles, notes and communications published throughout his life both in Portuguese and foreign publications.