Dr. André Joseph Guillaume Henri 'Dok' Kostermans (

Purworejo Purworejo is a regency (; ) in the southern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,081.45 km2 and had a population of 695,427 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 769,880 at the 2020 Census ...

, 1 July 1906 –

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

, 10 July 1994) was an Indonesian

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

of Dutch ancestry. He was born in Purworejo,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, and educated at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

, taking his doctoral degree in 1936 with a paper on Surinamese

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

. He spent most of his professional life studying the plants of southeastern Asia, settled at Buitenzorg, later

Bogor Bogor City (), or Bogor (, ), is a landlocked city in the West Java, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. At an early stage in his career he also contributed a number of family treatments to Pulle's ''Flora of Suriname''. Kostermans was especially interested in

, Malvales (

Bombacaceae Bombacaceae were long recognised as a family of flowering plants or Angiospermae. The family name was based on the type genus '' Bombax''. As is true for many botanical names, circumscription and status of the taxon has varied with taxonomic poi ...

and

Sterculiaceae Sterculiaceae was a family of flowering plant based on the genus '' Sterculia''. Genera formerly included in Sterculiaceae are now placed in the family Malvaceae, in the subfamilies: Byttnerioideae, Dombeyoideae, Helicteroideae and Sterculioide ...

), and

Dipterocarpaceae Dipterocarpaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India ...

. In his later years, he turned his attention to Asian

Anacardiaceae The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...

. He was a productive worker and published extensively on these and other groups. The

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Kostermansia'' Soegeng, of the family Bombacaceae, and over 50 species were named in his honour. Kostermans suffered a heart attack in March 1991, but his letter to his friend written in April 1991 stated "''some writing (including) putting the finishing touch to a fat manuscript on the

Mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

species (69 species) ... If I am lucky I shall have a chance to see it.''" Kostermans did live to see it published by Academic Press in 1993. He died in Indonesia in 1994.

References

ASPT NEWSLETTER 9(1) January 1995
URL accessed 26 March 2006.

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110519134712/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9679732 Image of grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Kostermans, Andre Joseph Guillaume Henri 1906 births 1994 deaths 20th-century botanists 20th-century Dutch botanists Indonesian people of Dutch descent Dutch people of Indonesian descent Dutch expatriates in Indonesia People from Purworejo Regency 20th-century Dutch East Indies people Utrecht University alumni