Walter Tennyson Swingle (January 8, 1871 – January 19, 1952) was an American agricultural

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

who contributed greatly to the classification and taxonomy of citrus. Limequat

Biography

Swingle was born in

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and moved with his family to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

two years later. He graduated from the

Kansas State Agricultural College Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

in 1890, and studied at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

in 1895–96 and 1898. Swingle married Lucie Romstaedt in 1901; she died in 1910. He married Maude Kellerman, daughter of

William Ashbrook Kellerman William Ashbrook Kellerman (May 1, 1850 Ashville, Ohio – March 8, 1908) was an American botanist, mycologist and photographer. Biography Kellerman was born in May 1850 in Ohio, the son of Daniel Kemberling Kellerman and Iva/Ivy Ashbrook Kellerm ...

, in 1915 and they had four children. He died in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1952. In 1927, botanist

Elmer Drew Merrill Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through t ...

published ''

Swinglea ''Swinglea'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Rutaceae. It only contains a single species, ''Swinglea glutinosa''. It is native to the Philippines. The genus name of ''Swinglea'' is in honour of Walter Tennyson Sw ...

'', which is 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 the Philippines, belonging to the family

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Derm ...

and named in Walter Tennyson Swingle's honor.

Contribution to US agricultural industry

Swingle worked at the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

(1891), investigated subtropic fruits, established laboratories in Florida, became an agricultural explorer, and (after 1902) had charge of crop physiology and

breeding Breeding is sexual reproduction that produces offspring, usually animals or plants. It can only occur between a male and a female animal or plant. Breeding may refer to: * Animal husbandry, through selected specimens such as dogs, horses, and ra ...

investigations. He developed the

tangelo The tangelo ( , ; ''C. reticulata × C. maxima'' or ''× C. paradisi''), ''Citrus × tangelo, is'' a citrus fruit hybrid of a ''Citrus reticulata'' variety, such as mandarin orange or tangerine, and a ''Citrus maxima'' variety, such as a pomel ...

citrus hybrid in 1897 in

Eustis, Florida Eustis is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 23,189 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Metropolitan Statistical Area. Eustis High School is the town's local public high sc ...

. He made several visits to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

countries of Europe, to North Africa, and to Asia Minor, from where he introduced the

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle Eas ...

, pistachio nut and other useful plants, as well as the

fig wasp Fig wasps are wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea which spend their larval stage inside figs. Most are pollinators but others simply feed off the plant. The non-pollinators belong to several groups within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, while the ...

, to make possible the cultivation of

Smyrna fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native plant, Native to the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is no ...

s in California. Swingle also traveled to Asia, bringing back 100,000 Chinese volumes on botany to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. Much of his research is published in the five-volume book, ''

The Citrus Industry ''The Citrus Industry'' is a book consisting of five volumes of scientific and experimental information on all the citrus species and varieties, originals as well as hybrids. The book was produced by scientists associated with the University of C ...

'', of which he wrote a significant portion.

Plant anatomy collection

An extensive collection related to Swingle and his life, photos and works entitled the
Swingle Plant Anatomy Reference Collection
is hosted at the University of Miami.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Walter Tennyson Swingle Collection
University of Miami Libraries Special Collections Finding Aid. The collection contain papers, articles, correspondence and other materials that provide information on his botanical and plant introduction work as well as his personal life and travels.
Swingle Plant Anatomy Reference Collection
The site features over 1,700 photomicrographs of plant parts from more than 250 species of plants collected from all over the world, plant structure animations, and information on Walter Tennyson Swingle.
Walter Tennyson Swingle: botanist and exponent of Chinese civilization
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swingle, Walter Tennyson People from Wayne County, Pennsylvania American botanists 1871 births 1952 deaths