Steven "Steve" Perlman is a

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

known for his work at the

National Tropical Botanical Garden The National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) is a Hawaii-based not-for-profit institution dedicated to tropical plant research, conservation, and education. It operates a network of botanical gardens and preserves in Hawaii and Florida. History ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Perlman has been at the forefront of protecting Hawaii’s endangered species for more than 40 years. He has been described as a "rock star" botanist by the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

. In the 1970s, he pioneered rappelling down high cliffs to save the '' Brighamia insignis'' - a rare Hawaiian plant commonly known as the Alula. After a long career as a field botanist at the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Perlman is now (as of 2014) the statewide specialist for Hawaii’s Plant Extinction Prevention Program. The program focuses on protecting species with fewer than 50 plants remaining in the wild. The specific epithet ''perlmanii'' in the palm '' Pritchardia perlmanii'' honors Steven Perlman who was first to notice the unique features of this species.

References

''This article uses public domain text from the Voice of America as cited.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Perlman, Steven 21st-century American botanists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people