Francis Marion Ownbey (29 September 1910 - 1974) was an American botanist. Ownbey earned his Ph.D. at the

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, with Jesse M. Greenman. Ownbey began to teach at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

in 1939, and became director of the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

. During World War II, he was sent to Ecuador as part of the

Cinchona Missions The Cinchona Missions (1942-1945) were a series of expeditions led by the United States to find natural sources of quinine in South America during World War II. Background Bark of species from the genus '' Cinchona'' produces the alkaloid quinine, ...

. Ownbey was especially interested in the genus '' Tragopogon''. He was awarded a

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1954 for his investigation into the genetics of the genus. He died in 1974, and the herbarium at WSU was named in his honor. His brother, , was also a published botanist.

Select publications

Books

* Francis Marion Ownbey, Hannah Caroline Aase. 1955. ''Cytotaxonomic studies in Allium''. p. 1-3, Research Studies of the State College of Washington: Monographic supplement. Editor State College of Washington, 106 pp. * Francis Marion Ownbey. 1939. ''A monograph of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Calochortus''. Editor Washington Univ. 670 pp.

References

{{authority control University of Washington faculty 20th-century American botanists Botanists with author abbreviations 1910 births 1974 deaths Washington University in St. Louis alumni