Paulus Johannes Maria "Paul" Maas (born 27 February 1939, in Arnhem) is a botanist from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and a specialist in the flora of the

neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

. Maas has identified and named about two hundred fifty plants from the

Burmanniaceae Burmanniaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, consisting of 99 species of herbaceous plants in eight genera. Description These plants are annual or perennial herbs, with generally unbranched stems, some lacking leaves. Some m ...

, the Costus Family (

Costaceae Costaceae, known as the ''Costus'' family or spiral gingers, is a family of pantropical monocots. It belongs to the order Zingiberales, which contains horticulturally and economically important plants such as the banana (Musaceae), bird-of-para ...

), the Gentian Family (

Gentianaceae Gentianaceae is a family of flowering plants of 103 genera and about 1600 species. Etymology The family takes its name from the genus '' Gentiana'', named after the Illyrian king Gentius. Distribution Distribution is cosmopolitan. Characteri ...

), the Bloodwort Family (

Haemodoraceae Haemodoraceae is a family of perennial herbaceous flowering plants with 14 genera and 102 known species. It is sometimes known as the "bloodwort family". Primarily a Southern Hemisphere family, they are found in South Africa, Australia and New ...

), the Banana Family (

Musaceae Musaceae is a family of flowering plants composed of three genera with about 91 known species, placed in the order Zingiberales. The family is native to the tropics of Africa and Asia. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves ...

), the

Olacaceae Olacaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Santalales. They are woody plants, native throughout the tropical regions of the world. , the circumscription of the family varies; some sources maintain a broad family, others split it into ...

, the

Triuridaceae Triuridaceae are a family of tropical and subtropical flowering plants, including nine genera with a total of approximately 55 known species. All members lack chlorophyll and are mycoheterotrophic (obtain food by digesting intracellular fungi, o ...

, and the Ginger Family (

Zingiberaceae Zingiberaceae () or the ginger family is a family of flowering plants made up of about 50 genera with a total of about 1600 known species of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes distributed throughout tropical Af ...

The Annonaceae and

saprotrophic Saprotrophic nutrition or lysotrophic nutrition is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of decayed (dead or waste) organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi (f ...

plants from the neotropics, such as the

, are two major areas of research. Maas has also worked with the genus '' Canna'' (Cannaceae) and has published floristic treatments of this group for the Guianas (Maas 1985) and Ecuador (Maas & Maas 1988). In 2008, he was honoured when botanists Mols, Kessler & Rogstad published 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

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

, belonging to the family Annonaceae as ''

Maasia ''Maasia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Annonaceae. Its native range is Indo-China to New Guinea. It is found in Andaman Islands, Borneo, Java, Malaya, Maluku Islands, Myanmar, Nicobar Islands, Philippines, Sulawesi, Suma ...

''.

External links

Page of Hiltje and Paul Maas

Published works

* Maas, P. J. M. 1985. 195. Cannaceae. In: A. R. A. Görts-van Rijn, ed. 1985+. Flora of the Guianas. Series A: Phanerogams. 1212+ volsfasc. Königstein. VolFasc. 1, pp. xx—xx69–73 . * Maas, P. J. M. and H. Maas. 1988. 223. Cannaceae. In: G. Harling et al., eds. 1973+. Flora of Ecuador. 5660+ volsnos. Göteborg. VolNo. 32, pp. 1–9. * Segeren, W & Maas, PJM - The genus Canna in northern South America (1971), Acta Botanica Neerlandica. 20(6): 663–680.

References

1939 births Living people 20th-century Dutch botanists 21st-century Dutch botanists People from Arnhem Cannaceae {{netherlands-botanist-stub