Ellsworth Paine Killip (September 2, 1890 – November 21, 1968) was a

U.S. 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

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 ...

. His name is linked to over 600 species names. Around 150 species are named for him, including ''

Linanthus killipii ''Linanthus killipii'', known by the common name Baldwin Lake linanthus, is a rare species of flowering plant in the phlox family. Distribution The plant is endemic to the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California, where it is known from ...

''. Killip specialized in the taxonomy of South American plants. Killip joined the staff of the United States National Museum (USNM; now known as the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

) in 1919 as an Aide in the Division of Plants. He was promoted to Assistant Curator in 1927, Associate Curator in 1928, and Curator in 1946. In 1947, Killip was appointed Head Curator of the newly established Department of Botany, USNM, a position he retained until his retirement in 1950. In 1925, '' Killipia'' was a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s from Colombia and Ecuador, belonging to the family

Melastomataceae Melastomataceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs, sh ...

, named after him. It is now been downgraded to a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''

Miconia ''Miconia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the glory bush family, Melastomataceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species are mostly shrubs and small to medium-sized trees up to 15 m tall. The generic name ...

''.

References

External links

*
Personal papers
at Smithsonian Institution Archives

at passionflow.co.uk
Works
at

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American botanists 1890 births 1968 deaths {{US-botanist-stub