Richard Eric Holttum

Richard Eric Holttum (born July 26, 1895 in Linton, Cambridgeshire , † September 18, 1990 in London ) was an English botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Holttum ".

Live and act

Richard Eric Holttum's parents were Quakers , and he too remained an avowed Quaker all his life. After he had won a university prize for botany at St. John's College , Cambridge in 1920 , he became an assistant to Albert C. Seward . With this he undertook, among other things, an expedition to Greenland in order to examine its former tropical flora using fossils.

As early as 1922 he turned to the recent tropical flora and became Assistant Director at the Singapore Botanical Gardens ; a few years later he became its director. Ferns and orchids were soon the focus of his scientific work ; in addition, he deals, for example, with ginger plants and bamboo. Field research took him to many parts of Southeast Asia .

In 1949 he became the first botany professor at the University of Malaya . In 1955 he returned to England and continued his taxonomic work in Kew .

Honors

Awards Richard Eric Holttum has received include the Linnaeus Medal (1964) and the Victoria Medal of Honor . The plant genera Holttumiella Copel are named after Holttum . from the family of adiantum (Adiantaceae) Holttumochloa K.M.Wong from the family of grasses (Poaceae) and Rehia Fijten (gebilder from REH) from the same family.

literature

Stearn, William T. (1997): Richard Eric Holttum (1895-1990), botanist and religious thinker . In: Johns, RJ (ed.): Holttum Memorial Volume: 1–5. Kew (Royal Botanic Gardens).

Individual evidence

↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

Author entry and list of the described plant names for Richard Eric Holttum at the IPNI
Literature by and about Richard Holttum in the catalog of the Virtual Library of Biology (vifabio)
Bibliographic entry in the Cyclopaedia of Malesian Collectors .

personal data
SURNAME	Holttum, Richard Eric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English botanist
DATE OF BIRTH	July 26, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Linton, Cambridgeshire
DATE OF DEATH	September 18, 1990
Place of death	London

[Burkhardt2018-1] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]