Julian Alfred Steyermark (January 27, 1909 – October 15, 1988) was a Venezuelan American botanist. His focus was on

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

vegetation, and he specialized in the family

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules a ...

Life and work

Julian Alfred Steyermark was born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

as the only child of the businessman Leo L. Steyermark and Mamie I. Steyermark (''née'' Isaacs). He studied at the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1933. His distinguished career included the Field Museum of Chicago, the ''Instituto Botánico'' of Caracas, and he was with the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million ...

in St. Louis from 1984 until his death. Steyermark's major works were his ''

Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana ''Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana'' is a multivolume flora describing the vascular plants of the Guayana Region of Venezuela, encompassing the three states south of the Orinoco: Amazonas, Bolívar, and Delta Amacuro. Initiated by Julian Alfred S ...

'', ''Flora of Missouri'', and his ''Flora of Guatemala''. During his life, Steyermark collected over 130,000 plants in twenty-six countries, which earned him an entry in the ''

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

''. He made the initial descriptions of 2,392 taxa of plants, including one family, 38 genera, and 1,864 species. The standard author abbreviation Steyerm. is used to indicate Steyermark when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Interna ...

Honours

Julian Alfred Steyermark is honoured in several genera of South American plants; *'' Steyermarkina'' is a genus of plants within the

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...

family, *'' Steyermarkochloa'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of plants in the

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 ...

family. *'' Steyerbromelia'' in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Bromeliaceae The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

, published also in 1987, *''

Steyermarkia ''Steyermarkia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Rubiaceae. It only contains one known species, Steyermarkia guatemalensis Standl. It is native to south-eastern Mexico and Guatemala. The genus name of ''Steyerma ...

'' (in the family

) was also named in his honor in 1940. * '' Stanmarkia'' published in 1993, 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 t ...

s from Mexico and Guatemala, belonging to the family

Melastomataceae Melastomataceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs, s ...

. The name also honours another American botanist

Paul Carpenter Standley Paul Carpenter Standley (March 21, 1884 – June 2, 1963) was an American botanist known for his work on neotropical plants. __TOC__ Standley was born on March 21, 1884 in Avalon, Missouri. He attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri an ...

(1884–1963). Steyermark is also commemorated in the scientific name of a species of South American snake, ''

Atractus steyermarki ''Atractus steyermarki'' is a species of snake in the family Colubridae Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of th ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Steyermark", p. 254).

Major works

* ''Flora of Missouri'' (1963) Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press. . * ''Bromeliaceae of Venezuela'' with Francisco Oliva-Esteva (1987) Caracas, Venezuela: Graficas Armitano, C. A.

Life and work

Honours

Major works

See also