Harold Ernest Robinson (May 22, 1932 – December 17, 2020) was an American

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 ...

and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Career

Robinson's specialty was the sunflower family (

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

) and the bryophytes. He has named or described over 2,800 new species and subtribes, more than one tenth of the number of species in the Asteraceae. This figure is also about one quarter of the number of flowering plants described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

. Robinson has written over 650 publications, mainly on the Asteraceae,

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es (Bryophyta), Marchantiophyta, and the long-legged fly family Dolichopodidae (describing over 200 new species and 6 new genera, such as '' Harmstonia'' and '' Nanomyina'') and many other subjects. He received a B.S. from

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

in 1955, an M.S. from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

in 1957, a Ph.D. from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1960. From 1960 to 1962 as assistant professor at

Wofford College Wofford College is a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was founded in 1854. The campus is a national arboretum and one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the America ...

(

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat, seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest c ...

), he became Associate Curator of

lower plants Non-vascular plants are plants without a vascular system consisting of xylem and phloem. Instead, they may possess simpler tissues that have specialized functions for the internal transport of water. Non-vascular plants include two distantly rel ...

at 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 ...

, Washington (1960–1962). Later he was appointed Associate Curator (1964–1971) and finally Curator of Botany from 1971.

Research

Robinson, together with collaborators, investigated the taxonomy of several bryophytes,

green alga The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...

e (co-naming a new genus ''

Struveopsis ''Struveopsis'' is a genus of green algae in the family Boodleaceae. The genus was circumscribed by Willem ten Rhijne (Wilhelmus ten Rhyne) and Harold Ernest Robinson in Phytologia vol.17 (7) on pages 467-468 in 1968. The genus name of ''Struve ...

''), and

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

s of family

Hippocrateaceae Hippocrateaceae Juss. previously consisted of about 150 tropical and subtropical species of shrubs and lianes, and is now included in the family Celastraceae. Formerly it comprised the following genera: * '' Anthodon'' * '' Apodostigma'' * '' Arni ...

(now a synonym of the staff vine family Celastraceae). He made a study of the

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

of the genus '' Houstonia'' of the madder family. Robinson's major interest went to the sunflower family (

). In the

neotropic The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

al tribe Eupatorieae, Robinson (with co-worker King) has named at least one species in 27 of the genera. He later worked on the reorganization of the tribes

Senecioneae Senecioneae is the largest tribe of the Asteraceae, or the sunflower family, comprising over 150 genera and over 3,500 species. Almost one-third of the species in this tribe are placed in the genus ''Senecio''. Its members exhibit probably the w ...

Heliantheae The Heliantheae (sometimes called the sunflower tribe) are the third-largest tribe in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). With some 190 genera and nearly 2500 recognized species, only the tribes Senecioneae and Astereae are larger. The name is de ...

Liabeae Liabeae is a tribe in the plant family Asteraceae. It is endemic to the Neotropics, where it is most diverse in the northern and central Andes.Dillon, M. O., et alChapter 27: Liabeae.In: Funk, V. A., et al. (eds.) ''Systematics, Evolution, and Bi ...

, and Vernonieae. Robinson has made a detailed study of the many secondary

metabolite In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...

chemicals found in the Eupatorieae tribe, such as

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s, (poly)

acetylene Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

s, and terpenoids (see '' Ichthyothere''), together with and

Ferdinand Bohlmann Ferdinand Bohlmann ( 28 August 1921 - 23 September 1991) was a German chemist, known for his studies of plant natural products chemistry, especially terpenoids and polyynes. Life Bohlmann studied chemistry in Göttingen from 1939 to 1944 . H ...

. This resulted in a large number of publications mostly in the journal ''

Phytochemistry Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and ...

'' in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1970 Robinson and King stressed the need for diagnostic character analysis in his classic article entitled ''The New Synantherology''. In 1974 Robinson named a new subtribe Luziolinae of oryzoid (= rice-like)

grass 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 ...

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 ...

, but this was not supported by molecular study. Robinson also named the small genus '' Synanthes'' of

epiphytic An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s from Paraguay, as well as named 32 new species from the

bromeliad family The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

. These were mostly in the genera '' Navia'' and ''

Lindmania ''Lindmania'' is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae. It is one of two genera in the subfamily Lindmanioideae, and contains 39 species. All but one of the known species are native to Venezuela, a few occurring in neighboring Guyana and n ...

'', ''

Connellia ''Connellia'' is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae. The genus name is for Frederick Vavasour McConnell, English ornithologist and biologist (1868-1914). There are 6 known species, all native to the Guyana Highlands of Guyana and Vene ...

'', and ''

Cottendorfia ''Cottendorfia'' is a genus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae. The genus name is for Johann Georg Freiherr Cotta von Cottendorf, German patron of the sciences (1796-1863). There is only one known species, ''Cottendorfia florida'', endemic t ...

'', such as '' Navia albiflora'' and '' Navia aliciae''. In 1999 he merged ''

Pepinia ''Pitcairnia'' subg. ''Pepinia'' is a subgenus of plants in the family Bromeliaceae. It has at times been treated as the separate genus ''Pepinia'', but is now included again in the genus ''Pitcairnia''. The name is for Pierre Denis Pépin, Fren ...

'' into ''

Pitcairnia ''Pitcairnia'' is a genus of plants in the Family (biology), family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Pitcairnioideae. It was named for William Pitcairn, Scottish physician and gardener (1711–1791). The genus ''Pitcairnia'' ranks as the second most prol ...

'' at generic level. He made several illustrations for the ''Catalog of Botanical Illustrations'', Smithsonian Institution, such as for ''

Brewcaria duidensis ''Brewcaria duidensis'' is a species of plants in the genus ''Brewcaria''. This species is endemic to Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a coun ...

''. In 1986 Robinson gave a critical but constructive opinion on

cladistics Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

in the article. "A Key to the Common Errors of Cladistics".

Awards and legacy

In 2010, Robinson received the Asa Gray Award, the highest honour of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. In 1996, the plant genus '' Robinsonecio'' (in the family

) from Mexico and Guatemala, and then '' Haroldia'', which is 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 belonging to the family Asteraceae, was published in 2009, were both named in his honour.

Selected works

* Rhyne, C. and H. Robinson. 1968. ''Struveopsis'', a new genus of green algae. Phytologia 17:467-472 * Robinson, H. 1969, A Monograph of Foliar Anatomy of the Genera ''Connellia'', ''Cottendorfia'' and ''Navia'' (Bromeliaceae). Washington.. * King, R. M., & H. Robinson. 1970. The new synantherology. Taxon 19:6-11. * King, R. M., and H. Robinson. 1970 : ''Eupatorium'', a composite genus of Arcto-Tertiary distribution. Taxon 19: 769–774. * King, R. M., and H. Robinson 1970 : Studies in the Eupatorieae (Compositae). XXV. A new genus ''Eupatoriadelphus''. Phytologia 19: 431–432. * King, R. M., & H. Robinson. 1970. New combinations in ''Ageratina''. Phytologia 19:208-229. * Reed, C. F. and H. Robinson. 1971. Bryophytes of Monteverde, Costa Rica. Phytologia 21: 6-21. * Terrell E. E., H. Robinson, 1974 Luziolinae, a new subtribe of oryzoid grasses. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 101: 235-235 SI* King, R. M. & H. Robinson. 1975.- Studies in the Eupatorieae (Asteraceae), CXXXIX. A new genus, ''Aristeguietia''. - Phytologia 30: 217–220. * Robinson H., 1978 Studies in the Heliantheae (Asteraceae). XII. Re-establishment of the genus ''Smallanthus''. Phytologia 39: 47-47 * Robinson H.,: 1978 - . Compositae-Liabeae. 1978. 63 pp. Flora of Ecuador volume 8 * Robinson H., 1980 Studies in the Heliantheae (Asteraceae). XXVI. New species of ''Ichthyothere''. Phytologia 47: 128-128 * Robinson H., 1981 A revision of the tribal and subtribal limits of the Heliantheae (Asteraceae). Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 51: 1-1 * Robinson H., A. M. Powell, R. M. King, J. F. Weedin, 1981 Chromosome numbers in Compositae. XII. Heliantheae. Smithsonian Contribributions to Botany 52: 1-1 * Bohlmann, F., Zdero, C., Grenz, M., Dhar, A.K., Robinson, H., King, R.M.. "Naturally occurring terpene derivatives .307. 5 diterpene and other constituents from 9 ''Baccharis'' species." - Phytochemistry 20 281 - 286, 1981. * Robinson H., 1983 Studies in the Heliantheae (Asteraceae). XXX. A new species of ''Ichthyothere'' from Cayenne. Phytologia 53: 388-388 * * Terrell, E.E., W.H. Lewis, H. Robinson, and J.W. Nowicke. 1986. Phylogenetic implications of diverse seed types, chromosome numbers, and pollen morphology in ''Houstonia'' (Rubiaceae) Am. J. Bot. 73:103-115. * King, R.M. & Robinson, H. 1987. The genera of the Eupatorieae (Asteraceae). Monographs in systematic botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 22: 1–581. * Robinson, H. 1993. A review of the genus ''Critoniopsis'' in Central and South America (Vernonieae: Asteraceae) Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 106: 606–627. * Robinson, H. 1993. Three new genera of Vernonieae from South America, ''Dasyandantha'', ''Dasyanthina'', and ''Quechualia''. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 106(4): 775–785. * Robinson, H., & J. Cuatrecasas. 1993. New species of ''Pentacalia'' (Senecioneae: Asteraceae) from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Novon 3(3): 284–301. * Robinson, H. 1994. ''Cololobus'', ''Pseudopiptocarpha'', and ''Trepadonia'', three new genera from South America (Vernonieae: Asteraceae). Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 107(3): 557–568. * Robinson, H. 1994. New combination in American Vernonieae (Asteraceae). Phytologia 76: 27–29. * Robinson, H. 1995. New combinations and new species in American Vernonieae (Asteraceae). Phytologia 78(5): 384–399. * Robinson, H. 1995. Two new species of ''Ichthyothere'' (Heliantheae: Asteraceae) from Ecuador and Peru. Sida 16(4): 731–736. *Robinson, H. & V. Funk. 1995. Compositae of Ecuador I: Key to frequently collected genera. In: R. Valencia & H. Balslev (eds.) Estudios sobre diversidad y ecología de plantas, p. 65-75. PUCE, Quito. * Robinson, H. 1997. New species of ''Aphanactis'' in Ecuador and Bolivia and new combinations in ''Selloa'' (Heliantheae: Asteraceae). Brittonia 49(1): 71–78. * Robinson, H. 1997. New species of ''Aphanactis'', ''Calea'', ''Clibadium'' and ''Tridax'' (Heliantheae, Asteraceae) from Ecuador and Peru. Phytologia 82(1): 58–62. * Robinson, H. 1997. New species of ''Archibaccharis'' and ''Baccharis'' from Bolivia and Peru (Asteraceae: Astereae). Biollania, Edición Esp. No. 6: 501–508. * Robinson, H. 1997. New species of ''Ayapanopsis'' and ''Hebeclinum'' from South America (Asteraceae: Eupatorieae). Biollania, Edición Esp. No. 6: 509–514. * Robinson, H. 1999 New species and new combinations of Neotropical Eupatorieae (Asteraceae). Phytologia 84: 347–353. * Robinson, H. 1999. Generic and subtribal classification of American Vernonieae. Smithson. Contributions Bot. 89: 1–116.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Harold E. 1932 births 2020 deaths Duke University alumni American phycologists 21st-century American botanists Botanists with author abbreviations Bryologists American entomologists People from Syracuse, New York Ohio University alumni University of Tennessee alumni Wofford College faculty Scientists from New York (state)