Frans Hubert Edouard Arthur Walter Robyns (1901-1986), known as Walter Robyns, was a Belgian botanist. His son, André Robyns (1935–2003), was also a botanist.

Biography

He received his doctorate in sciences at the

University of Louvain A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

.BHL
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications Robyns spent two long stays at the

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

, travelled in central Africa and performed taxonomic work on many groups of tropical African plants, amongst others:

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

and

legumes A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock fo ...

. From 1931 to 1966 he served as director of the ''Jardin Botanique National de Belgique'' (

National Botanic Garden of Belgium The Meise Botanic Garden ( nl, Plantentuin Meise, french: Jardin botanique de Meise), until 2014 called the National Botanic Garden of Belgium ( nl, Nationale Plantentuin van België, french: Jardin Botanique National de Belgique), is a botani ...

), where he shaped the transfer of the institute from the site in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

to the Bouchout Domain in

Meise Meise () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the towns of Meise proper and Wolvertem (a ''deelgemeente''), and, several smaller villages like Sint-Brixius-Rode, Oppem, Meusegem, Impde/I ...

. He was the initiator of a monographic flora series for central Africa, still continued today ("''Flore d'Afrique centrale''"). From 1959 to 1964 he was president of the

International Association for Plant Taxonomy The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and ...

Partial bibliography

* ''Flore agrostologique du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi'', Bruxelles : Goemaere, 1929-1934 – Agrostologic flora of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

and

Ruanda-Urundi Ruanda-Urundi (), later Rwanda-Burundi, was a colonial territory, once part of German East Africa, which was occupied by troops from the Belgian Congo during the East African campaign in World War I and was administered by Belgium under militar ...

. * ''Flore des spermatophytes du Parc national Albert'' (with Roland Tournay) Bruxelles : Institut des parcs nationaux du Congo belge, 1947-1955 –

Spermatophyte A spermatophyte (; ), also known as phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds, hence the alternative name seed plant. Spermatophytes are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants. They inc ...

s from the

Albert National Park , iucn_category = II , iucn_ref = , location = Democratic Republic of the Congo , map = Democratic Republic of the Congo , relief = 1 , coordinates = , area = , established = , nearest_city = Goma , photo =Virunga National Park-107997 ...

. * ''Les territoires biogéographiques du Parc National Albert'', Bruxelles : Institut des parcs nationaux du Congo belge, 1948 –

Biogeographic Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

territories of the Albert National Park. * ''Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi, préparée par le Comité exécutif'', Bruxelles : ardin botanique de l'État 1958 – Flora of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi.OCLC WorldCat
published works

Eponymy

* ''

Robynsia ''Robynsia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It was described by John Hutchinson and was named after his friend and colleague Walter Robyns.Hutchinson, John. 1931. Flora of West Tropical Africa 2: 108 The genu ...

'', family

, name introduced by John Hutchinson (1931). * ''Robynsiella'', family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

, name introduced by Karl Suessenguth (1938). * '' Robynsiochloa'', family

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

, name introduced by Henri Jacques-Félix (1960). * '' Robynsiophyton'', family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

, name introduced by Rudolf Wilczek (1953).

Abbreviation

References

Sources

* Diagre-Vanderpelen, D.; Fabri, R.. (2020). "Robyns, Frans, Hubert, Édouard, Arthur, Walter, botaniste, directeur du Jardin botanique de l’État à Bruxelles, professeur à l’Université catholique de Louvain, né à Mielen-boven-Aelst le 25 mai 1901, décédé à Uccle le 27 décembre 1986". Nouvelle Biographie Nationale, Bruxelles. 15: 312-314.

External links

Walter Robyns on the website of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium

Flore d'Afrique Centrale (Zaïre-Rwanda-Burundi). Spermatophytes
at Smithsonian Collections Search Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Robyns, Frans Hubert Edouard Arthur Walter 1901 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Belgian botanists People from Aalst, Belgium