Leslie Andrew Garay (August 6, 1924 - August 19, 2016), born Garay László András, was an American botanist. He was the curator of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded

Charles Schweinfurth Charles Schweinfurth (April 13, 1890 – November 16, 1970) was an American botanist and plant collector who distinguished himself by his studies on orchids. He predominantly collected species from Peru which he described in his four volume refer ...

in 1958. In 1957 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 ...

Life and work

Garay was born in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, and after the Second World War he emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States. He was a

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

and collector of

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, particularly interested in the orchids of tropical America and Southeast Asia. His ideas were influential in orchid taxonomy, and he reorganized several genera, including ''

Oncidium ''Oncidium'', abbreviated as Onc. in the horticultural trade, is a genus that contains about 330 species of orchids from the subtribe Oncidiinae of the orchid family (Orchidaceae). As presently conceived (May 2014), it is distributed across much ...

''. In addition to reclassification of various species into different genera, he defined a number of new genera including ''

Chaubardiella ''Chaubardiella'' is a genus of flowering plants from the Cymbidieae of the orchid family, Orchidaceae, native to Costa Rica and South America. #'' Chaubardiella dalessandroi'' Dodson & Dalström - Ecuador #'' Chaubardiella delcastilloi'' D.E.Be ...

'' in 1969 and '' Amesiella'' in 1972.

Publications

Among his influential publications were: * ''Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated'', Galfrid C. K. Dunsterville & Leslie A. Garay, Andre Deutsch, London & Amsterdam, 1959–76, 334 pp. * ''Natural & artificial hybrid generic names of orchids, 1887-1965'', 1966, Botanical Museum leaflets, Harvard University, 212 pp. * ''Flora of the Lesser Antilles: Orchidaceae '', 1974, Garay, Los Angeles, HR Sweet, Amer Orchid Soc. * ''Orchids of the Southern Ryukyu Islands'', 1974, Leslie A. Garay & Herman R. Sweet, Botanical Museum, Harvard University, 180 pp. * ''Orchidaceae,

Cypripedioideae Cypripedioideae is a subfamily of orchids commonly known as lady's slipper orchids, lady slipper orchids or slipper orchids. Cypripedioideae includes the genera ''Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium'' and ''Selenipedium''. The ...

Orchidoideae The Orchidoideae, or the orchidoid orchids, are a subfamily of the orchid family (Orchidaceae) that contains around 3630 species. Species typically have a single ( monandrous), fertile anther which is erect and basitonic. Description The subf ...

, Neottioideae'', vol. 9 of ''Flora of Ecuador'', NFR, 304 pp. * ''Orchids Venezuela'', Galfrid C. K. Dunsterville & Leslie A. Garay, 3 volumes, 1979, Publ. Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts * ''Systematics of the genus Stelis SW'', 1979, Harvard University, Botanical Museum leaflets, 259 pp. * ''Index to the orchid herbarium of Oakes Ames in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University'', 1989, Chadwyck-Healey, 204 pp.

Legacy

The following plants have been named in his honour: ; Genera: * (

Orchidaceae 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 ...

) '' Garayanthus'' Szlach. * (Orchidaceae) '' Garaya'' Szlach. * (Orchidaceae) '' Lesliea''

Seidenf. Gunnar Seidenfaden (1908 – February 9, 2001) was a Danish diplomat and botanist. He was Danish ambassador in Thailand 1955–1959, and in the U.S.S.R. 1959–1961. He was an expert on Southeast Asia Orchidaceae. He published several multi-volum ...

; Species:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garay, Leslie Andrew Orchidologists 1924 births 2016 deaths Arnold Arboretum 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists Harvard University staff Hungarian emigrants to Canada Canadian emigrants to the United States