Gilbert Westacott Reynolds

Gilbert Westacott Reynolds (born October 10, 1895 in Bendigo ( Australia ), † April 7, 1967 in Mbabane ( Swaziland )) was a South African botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Reynolds ".

Reynolds dealt with the systematics , morphology and biogeography of plants with a focus on aloes . On several trips he explored the flora of Africa and Madagascar .

Live and act

Gilbert Westacott Reynolds was born on October 10, 1895 in Bendigo, a city in the Australian state of Victoria . He came to South Africa with his parents in 1902, where his father started his own business as an optician . He finished his school education in 1914 at St. John's College in Johannesburg and was known there as an outstanding chess player (“Victor Ludorum”). During the First World War he reached the rank of "Captain" in the military and was stationed in South West Africa and in Nyasaland . After the war he qualified as an optician and joined his father's business. Between 1921 and 1930 he started his own business and developed an increased interest in onions and succulents in South Africa.

From 1930 he started excursions and specialized his research in the field of aloes. In the early years of his research he was supported by Inez Clare Verdoorn and Robert Allen Dyer from the Botanical Research Institute in Pretoria , where he expanded his knowledge as a specialist authority on aloes. He researched and collected aloe plants from all over Africa and Madagascar, among others with Peter René Oscar Bally . In the 1960s he spent some time in Kew to work on plant classifications at the Royal Botanic Gardens Institute . Between 1930 and 1966 he was considered a scientific doyen of aloes. He died in Mbabane in 1967. After his death, his plants were taken partly to the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary and partly to the National Botanical Institute in Pretoria. Reynolds described and named over 100 species of aloe.

Honors

Aloe reynoldsii

In recognition of his work, the following were awarded (selection):

• Honorary membership of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA), 1941
• Honorary membership of the Linnean Society of London (FLS), 1951
• Awarded by the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science , 1951
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town , 1952
• Bolus Medal of the Botanical Society of South Africa , 1966

The following plants were named after Reynolds:

• Aloe reynoldsii by Cythna Lindenberg Letty (1895–1985) in 1934.
• Delosperma reynoldsii by Mary Gwendolen Lavis (1903–1982) in 1967.

Fonts (selection)

Books

• The Aloes of South Africa . Balkema, 1950.
• The Aloes of Nyasaland . Nyasaland Society and African Book Center of Nyasaland, 1954.
• Les Aloes de Madagascar . Institut de Recherche scientifique de Madagascar, 1958.
• The Aloes of Tropical Africa and Madagascar . Aloes Book Fund, 1966.

Magazine articles

• Notes on the Aloes of southern Ethiopia and Somalia . In Journal of The East Africa Natural History Society Naibrobi, 1954, pp. 102-104. ( online )
• Hunting aloes in East Africa . In: African Wild Life . Volume 6, 1952, pp. 308-322.
• Hunting aloes in Nyasaland . In: African Wild Life . Volume 7, 1953, pp. 102-111.
• Hunting aloes in Ethiopia and Somaliland . In: African Wild Life . Volume 8, 1954, pp. 14-25.
• The Murchison Falls National Park . In: African Wild Life . Volume 8, 1954, pp. 271-279.
• The Queen Elizabeth National Park . In: African Wild Life. Volume 9, 1955, pp. 109-114
• Hunting aloes in Madagascar . In: African Wild Life . Volume 9, 1955, pp. 99-320.
• Hunting aloes in Eritrea and Ethiopia . In: African Wild Life . Volume 10, 1956, pp. 205-214.
• Hunting aloes in the Somaliland Protectorate . In: African Wild Life . Volume 12, 1958, pp. 101-114.
• Hunting aloes in Nyasaland and Tanganyika Territory . In: African Wild Life . Volume 13, 1959, pp. 35-52.
• Hunting aloes in Angola . In: African Wild Life . Volume 14, 1960, pp. 13-25.

literature

• G. Germishuizen, GF Glen: Botanical explorations of southern Africa, issue 2, South African National Biodiversity Institute SANBI, Pretoria, 2010.
• Mary Gunn, LEW Codd: Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa , Balkema, Cape Town, 1981 ISBN 978-0-86961-129-6 . ( Partial preview online )
• Colin C. Walker: Gilbert Westacott Reynolds: his study of Aloe and a bibliography of his work , Bradleya 28/2010, Dept. of Life Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, England.
• Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa vol. 9 (NASOU 1973), ISBN 0-625-00325-X

Web links

• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Gilbert Westacott Reynolds at the IPNI
• "Gilbert Westacott Reynolds: his study of Aloe and a bibliography of his work"
• "Reynolds, Gilbert Westacott (1895-1967)" Information on the plant collection (Herbarium Natural History Museum BM)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Chuck Staples: Gilbert Reynolds Biography (online PDF) ( Memento from August 5, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Germishuizen, Glen: Botanical explorations of southern Africa , pages 359-361. ( Full text online )
3. ↑ Walker: Gilbert Westacott Reynolds: his study of Aloe and a bibliography of his work , pages 111-124 ( partial online preview )