Yi-Li Keng ( ''Gěng Yi-Li''; 1897,

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

– 1975) was a Chinese botanist, specializing in the study of grasses (the family

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

), particularly the tribe Triticeae of the Poaceae. Yi-Li Keng graduated in 1927 with B.Sc. from

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU; ) is a national public research university in Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is a member of C9 League and a Class A Double First Class University designated by the Chinese central government. NJU has two main campuses: the Xianl ...

(called at that time National Southeastern University). After graduation, he collected plants in

Zhejiang Province Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...

with Hsen-Hsu Hu and Sung-Shu Chien. At

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

Keng graduated with A.M. in 1932 and Ph.D. in 1933. In 1934 he became a professor and researcher at Nanjing University (called at that time Central National University) and at the Institute of Zoology and Botany, Academia Sinica. (See p. 249.) He retained his professorship for the remainder of his career, including the war years when Nanjing University's academic staff evacuated Nanjing. In order to collect seeds of pasture grasses, he joined, during July and August 1935, the Roerich Expedition to Inner Mongolia. During the expedition, seeds were collected from about 50 different species of grasses, and Keng published descriptions of 6 of the species as new to science. His son, Pai-Chieh Keng (b. 1917), also became a botanist and the two of them jointly published several works. Keng's work in describing grasses in China was incorporated into the Chinese-language ''Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae'', an effort to complete the

Flora of China The flora of China consists of a diverse range of plant species including over 39,000 vascular plants, 27,000 species of fungi and 3000 species of bryophytes.Wu, Z. Y., P. H. Raven & D. Y. Hong, eds. 2006. Flora of China. Vol. 22 (Poaceae). Sc ...

. An English translation and update of the Poaceae chapter was released in 2007.

Eponyms

* (

) ''

Kengyilia ''Kengyilia'' is a genus of Asian plants in the grass family. The genus is named in honor of Yi Li Keng. ; Species * '' Kengyilia alatavica'' (Drobow) J.L.Yang, C.Yen & B.R.Baum - Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan * '' Ke ...

'' C.Yen & J.L.Yang

Selected publications

* * * * * Kwan-hou Keng is a previous name for Pai-Chieh Keng. See * * *

References

External links

* *
p. 477p. 478
(publication list of Yi Li Keng's publications related to bamboos) {{DEFAULTSORT:Keng, Yi Li 1897 births 1975 deaths 20th-century Chinese botanists Nanjing University alumni George Washington University alumni Academic staff of Nanjing University People from Nanjing