Conrad Vernon Morton

Conrad Vernon Morton (born October 24, 1905 as Walter Vernon Morton in Fresno , California , † July 29, 1972 in Washington, DC ) was an American botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " CVMorton ".

Life

Conrad Vernon Morton was born on October 24th, 1905 in Fresno to Walter Crow Morton and Nioma Bartholomew Morton, his name at that time was still Walter Vernon Morton. His father owned a roofing and construction business, but he died when Morton was very young. In about 1917 his mother married Alva B. McCray, an employee of the Santa Fe Railroad . The McCray family had a vineyard and other gardens; the rose garden, tended by Morton's mother, contained around 130 different types of roses. Even as a child, Morton had the opportunity to plant and maintain his own garden.

In 1924 he began studying at the University of California at Berkeley . In 1926 he changed his first name to Conrad Vernon. At first he devoted himself to studying physics, mathematics, astronomy and Slavic languages, and only later did he take a course in general botany, followed by other courses in taxonomy , algology and mycology, among others . In May 1928 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a grade cum laude from the University of California.

He initially worked for a short time as a teaching fellow in Botany, but soon switched to the Division of Plants at the US National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution . There he soon devoted himself to researching the Gesneriae family (Gesneriaceae) and the nightshade family (Solanaceae), and from the mid-1930s onwards, increasingly, also various ferns . In 1939 he was appointed assistant to the curator of flowering plants and attended lectures at George Washington University . Although he did not have a master's degree, he was accepted there as a doctoral student, but had to stop his work in 1946 because he was appointed associate curator (from 1948 to 1970 curator) of the newly established "Division of Ferns" of the "Department of Botany" of the US National Museum. From 1948 to 1959 he was also the executive curator of the Museum's "Division of Cryptogams".

In 1970 he was appointed "Senior Botanist", which freed him from all administrative tasks. Morton used this opportunity to devote himself again to the nightshade family, especially the Argentine nightshade ( Solanum ). At the beginning of 1972 he spent three months in Argentina, after which he worked on the completion of his work on this subject, but died unexpectedly on July 29, 1972 in Washington. The results of his work were completed by Armando Hunziker and Lyman Smith and published in 1976.

Dedication names

To honor Morton's work, a variety of new taxa were named after him by various authors. These include the genera Mortoniella Woodson from the family of the dog poison plants (Apocynaceae), Mortoniodendron Standl. & Steyerm. from the mallow family (Malvaceae), Mortoniopteris Pic.Serm. from the family of hymenophyllaceae (Hymenophyllaceae) and Neomortonia Wiehl from the family of Gesneriad (Gesneriaceae). In addition, there are several species whose epithet refers to Morton.

literature

• David B. Lellinger: Conrad Vernon Morton (1905–1972) . In: American Fern Journal , Volume 63, 1973. pp. 49-60.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .

Web links

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Conrad Vernon Morton at the IPNI