Cai Xitao or Tsai Hse-Tao (; 10 April 1911 – 9 March 1981) was a Chinese botanist from a village near

Dongyang () is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jinhua in Central Zhejiang Province, China. It covers an area of and administers eleven towns, one township, and six subdistricts. It is part of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Region. As ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

province, China. In 1928, after studying at various institutions in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...

and Shanghai, though without attaining any formal qualifications, Cai Xitao was able to secure a job at the Jing Sheng Botanic Laboratory in Beijing () through family connections. In 1932, he was transferred to

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in 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 Kunming. The province borders the C ...

province, where he worked as a botanist in the province's temperate climate. In 1938, he set up the Yunnan Botany Research Institute () in Heilongtan, and acted as the institute's Vice President. In 1950, Cai Xitao was given charge of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and in 1959 the

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), founded in 1959, is located in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna at 21º55' N, 101º15'E, covering an area of 1125 ha. Over 13,000 species of tropical plants ...

) was established under his control. He died on 9 March 1981. Some of the specimens he collected are now part of the

herbaria A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

References

External links

Cai Xitao Biography (Chinese)Kunming Institute of Botany C.I.S. Website (Chinese)Harvard University Herbaria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cai, Xitao 1911 births 1981 deaths 20th-century Chinese botanists Scientists from Jinhua Biologists from Zhejiang