Te-tsun Yü (1908–1986) was a Chinese botanist, specialising in

Spermatophytes A spermatophyte (; ), also known as phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds, hence the alternative name seed plant. Spermatophytes are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants. They inc ...

and

Phanerogams A spermatophyte (; ), also known as phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds, hence the alternative name seed plant. Spermatophytes are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants. They inc ...

, particularly in the

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

and

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

provinces of China, which have the most diverse flora in China.

Education

Yu was taught by

Hu Xiansu Hu Xiansu or Hu Hsien-Hsu (, 24 May 1894 – 16 July 1968), was a Chinese botanist and an influential traditional scholar of his time. He was a founder of plant taxonomy in China and a pioneer of modern botany research in the country. Education a ...

Career

Yu was a co-founder of the

Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming Institute of Botany, or KIB (), founded in 1938, is a research institution in the field of Botany, which is located in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, China. The Institute is one of the major herbariums in China and maintains a ...

. He worked as editor of the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae and director of the Institute of Botany at the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

. He was a prolific collector of plant specimens in Yunnan, making expeditions into the largely unexplored mountains in the north west of the province. Thousands of specimens he collected were exported to

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in N ...

in Boston, Massachusetts and

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

who funded the expeditions in 1937. In 1979 he toured the United States as part of a delegation from the Botanical Society of the People's Republic of China in reciprocal arrangements with the Botanical Society of America. This collaboration led to the Flora of China Project which started shortly after Yu's death and was first published in 1994. He compiled "The Botanical Gardens of China" (Published: 1983 by Science Press, Beijing, ) which contains many colour photographs and maps of each botanical garden.

References

External links

* http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/index.html Flora of China Project 20th-century Chinese botanists Chinese gardeners Chinese taxonomists Beijing Normal University alumni 1908 births 1986 deaths Biologists from Beijing Members of the Jiusan Society {{botanist-stub