The Botanical Society of America (BSA) represents professional and amateur

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

s, researchers, educators and students in over 80 countries of the world. It functions as a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

501(c) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exe ...

(3) membership society.

History

The society was first established in 1893 as an outgrowth from the Botanical Club of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

at a meeting in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

, on August 22, 1892. The organizing principles of the society were the enhancement of the study of plants in North America and to professionalize such efforts. In 1906, the organization merged with the Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology and the American Mycological Society.

Sections

The society has 16 special interest sections:

Former presidents

Former presidents of the society have included: *

William Trelease William Trelease (February 22, 1857 – January 1, 1945) was an American botanist, entomologist, explorer, writer and educator. This botanist is denoted by the List of botanists by author abbreviation, author abbreviation Trel. when Author citati ...

- Director of the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million spe ...

and the first president of the society *

Nathaniel Lord Britton Nathaniel Lord Britton (January 15, 1859 – June 25, 1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York (state), New York. Early life Britton was born in New Dorp, Staten Island, New ...

- Cofounder of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

Margaret Clay Ferguson Margaret Clay Ferguson was an American botanist best known for advancing scientific education in the field of botany. She also contributed on the life histories of North American pines. She was born in Orleans, New York in 1863 and attended th ...

- Head of the Department of Botany at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

and the first female president of the society *

William Francis Ganong William Francis Ganong, M.A., Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S.C., (19 February 1864 - 7 September 1941) was a Canadian biologist botanist, historian and cartographer. His botany career was spent mainly as a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass ...

- Professor of Botany,

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

and historian and cartographer of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

* Albert S. Hitchcock - Chief Botanist for the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

William Chambers Coker William Chambers Coker (October 24, 1872 – June 26, 1953) was an American botany, botanist and mycology, mycologist. Biography He was born at Hartsville, South Carolina on October 24, 1872. He graduated from University of South Carolina, Sou ...

- Founder of the

Coker Arboretum Coker Arboretum (5.3 acres) is an arboretum within the North Carolina Botanical Garden on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The collection consists of a wide variety of plantings including flowering tre ...

at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

Katherine Esau Katherine Esau (3 April 1898 – 4 June 1997) was a German-American botanist who received the National Medal of Science for her work on plant anatomy. Personal life and education Esau was born on 3 April 1898 in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire ...

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

recipient and namesake of the Katherine Esau Award in structural and developmental biology *

Vernon Cheadle Vernon Irvin Cheadle (February 6, 1910 – July 23, 1995) was an American botanist, educator and university administrator. He served as the second chancellor of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) from 1962 until 1977. He was bo ...

- Chancellor of the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

G. Ledyard Stebbins George Ledyard Stebbins Jr. (January 6, 1906 – January 19, 2000) was an American botanist and geneticist who is widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century. Stebbins received his Ph.D. in botany from Har ...

−

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Peter H. Raven Peter Hamilton Raven (born June 13, 1936) is an American botanist and environmentalist, notable as the longtime director, now President Emeritus, of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Early life On June 13, 1936, Raven was born in Shanghai, Chi ...

- Director of the

* Loren Rieseberg - Professor of Botany at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Publications

The society publishes the following

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

s: * ''

American Journal of Botany The ''American Journal of Botany'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal which covers all aspects of plant biology. It has been published by the Botanical Society of America since 1914. The journal has an impact factor of 3.038, as of 201 ...

'', since 1914 * ''Plant Science Bulletin'', since 1955
''Applications in Plant Sciences''
since 2009

References

External links

*
Archive of ''Plant Science Bulletin''
* Publications by th
Botanical Society of America
at the

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...

{{authority control Professional associations based in the United States Missouri Botanical Garden Natural Science Collections Alliance members Non-profit organizations based in St. Louis 501(c)(3) organizations Organizations established in 1893 1893 establishments in New York (state) Botany in North America