Howard Scott Gentry
Howard Scott Gentry (born December 10, 1903 in Temecula , USA , † April 1, 1993 in Tucson ) was an American botanist . His particular area of interest was the classification of the agaves , to which he made a great contribution through his work. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Gentry ".
Life
His first expeditions from 1930 on were the study of plants and animals in the Rio Mayo area. For eight years, with interruptions, he explored the ecology of southern Sonora on foot or by donkey .
Howard Scott Gentry studied at the University of California, Berkeley , where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931 with a thesis on vertebrates . From 1940 he worked at the University of Michigan , where he earned a doctorate in 1946. During the Second World War he interrupted his studies and looked for substitutes for rubber on behalf of the US government. From 1946 he was employed as a research botanist at the Allen Hancock Foundation for four years . From 1950, Howard Scott Gentry worked for the US Department of Agriculture as an agricultural explorer for 22 years , during which time he collected around 15,000 different seed samples from 24 countries. The agave alkaloid Gentrogenin was named in his honor in recognition of his work on new cortisone compounds .
In 1971 he went to Phoenix to join the Desert Botanical Garden as research director . He worked there until 1987. The University of Arizona awarded him an honorary doctorate .
His 25 years of field work culminated in his Agaves of Continental North American plant . For a long time it was considered the most definitive work on the genus of agaves.
Taxa named after Gentry
The plants Echinocereus scheeri var. Gentryi (Clover) NP Taylor and Agave gentryi Ullrich have been named after him.
Works
- Rio Mayo Plants: A study of the flora and vegetation of the valley of the Rio Mayo, Sonora . Publications of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Volume 527, Washington 1942.
- The Warihio Indians of Sonora Chihuahua: An ethnographic survey . Washington 1963.
- Agaves of Continental North America . Tucson 1982.
literature
- Bernd Ullrich: In Memoriam Howard Scott Gentry . In: Cacti and other succulents . tape 44 , no. 9 , 1993, pp. 203 .
- Anthony J. Verbiscar: Howard Scott Gentry . In: Economic Botany . Volume 47, Number 3, 1993, pp. 335-337, doi : 10.1007 / BF02862303 .
Web links
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for Howard Scott Gentry at the IPNI
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gentry, Howard Scott |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gentry, Howard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 10, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Temecula |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 1, 1993 |
| Place of death | Tucson |