Robert Allen Dyer (21 September 1900

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

– 26 October 1987

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, working particularly on

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus ''Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryllis fa ...

and

succulent plant In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

s, contributing to and editing of ''Bothalia'' and ''Flowering Plants of Africa'' and holding the office of Director of the Botanical Research Institute in Pretoria from 1944 to 1963.

Education and career

Attended

Michaelhouse Michaelhouse is a full boarding senior school for boys founded in 1896. It is located in the Balgowan valley in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. History ''St. Michael's Diocesan College'' was founded in Pietermaritzburg in 18 ...

and

Natal University College The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-Na ...

1919-1923, obtaining the degrees of M.Sc. in 1923 and D.Sc. in 1937. Appointed as assistant to Selmar Schonland in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

in 1925, as well as curator of the Albany Museum Herbarium. After doing a three-year stint (1931-1934) as liaison officer with 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 ...

, he was transferred to the National Herbarium in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. Here he became Chief and subsequently Director from 1944 to 1963. He revived the Botanical Survey Section and started the Pretoria National Botanic Garden, as well as editing ''Bothalia'', ''The Flowering Plants of Africa'', ''Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa'', and launching the ''Flora of Southern Africa''. After retiring in 1963, he continued working at the Institute, devoting his time to producing ''Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants''. His last major work dealt with ''Ceropegia'', ''Brachystelma'' and ''Riocreuxia'' and appeared in Flora of Southern Africa in 1981. In all, he produced some 450 publications. His greatest contributions were in the field of plant taxonomy and he published extensively in ''Flowering Plants of Africa'' and ''Bothalia''. Commemorated in the genus ''Radyera'' Bullock, ''Aridaria dyeri''

N.E.Br. Nicholas Edward Brown (11 July 1849 in Redhill, Surrey – 25 November 1934 in Kew Gardens, London) was an English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents. He was also an authority on several families of plants, including Asclepiadacea ...

and ''Hereroa dyeri'' L.Bol. His collected botanical specimens number over 6000 and are lodged in Pretoria, Grahamstown, Kew and the Bolus Herbarium.

Major publications

*''The Succulent Euphorbiae'' (1941) with White & Sloane *''The South African

Cycads Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or ...

'' (Bothalia 1963) *''Flora of Southern Africa'' -

Myrsinaceae Myrsinoideae is a subfamily of the family Primulaceae in the order Ericales. It was formerly recognized as the family Myrsinaceae, or the myrsine family, consisting of 35 genera and about 1000 species. It is widespread in temperate to tropical ...

, Primulaceae and

Plumbaginaceae Plumbaginaceae is a family of flowering plants, with a cosmopolitan distribution. The family is sometimes referred to as the leadwort family or the plumbago family. Most species in this family are perennial herbaceous plants, but a few grow as ...

(1963) *''Flora of Southern Africa'' -

Stangeriaceae Stangeriaceae is the smallest family of the cycads, including only two extant genera, '' Stangeria'' and ''Bowenia'', which both have an underground stem. Taxonomy Although the family was first published by Schimper and Schenk as Stangerieae, t ...

Zamiaceae The Zamiaceae are a family of cycads that are superficially palm or fern-like. They are divided into two subfamilies with eight genera and about 150 species in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Australia and North and South America. ...

(with I.C. Verdoorn 1966) *

Awards and fellowships

*Fellow of the American Cactus and Succulent Society 1941 *Herbert Medal (American Amaryllis Society) *President of Section C of S.A. Assoc. for Adv. of Science 1941/42 *Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa 1945 *President of S.A. Biological Society 1948 *Senior Capt. Scott Medal (S.A. Biological Society) *President of Pretoria Horticultural Society 1961-1972 *S.A. Assoc. of Botanists Gold Medal 1973 *Honorary D.Sc. from

Witwatersrand University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

1976

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dyer, Robert Allen 20th-century South African botanists South African taxonomists 1900 births 1987 deaths