Thomas Henry Kearney
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Thomas Henry Kearney (27 June 1874 – 19 October 1956) was an American
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 ...
and
agronomist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...
known for his work on
cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
and
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 ...
breeding, plant taxonomy, and the flora of
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. Kearney was born on 27 June 1874 in
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. He enrolled in the
University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...
in 1889, and began working for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
in 1894, where he would work for the next 50 years. Kearney published a revision of North American ''
Calamagrostis ''Calamagrostis'' (reed grass or smallweed) is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae, with about 260 species that occur mainly in temperate regions of the globe. Towards equatorial latitudes, species of ''Calamagrostis'' general ...
'' in 1898, describing 23 new species or varieties. From 1898 to 1900 Kearney participated in the Harriman Alaska Expedition. In the early 1900s Kearney traveled throughout North Africa to study crops such as
dates Date or dates may refer to: *Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner **Group dating *Play date, an ...
and cotton in arid and alkali soils, and began a decades-long period of cotton-breeding research in
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. Kearney served as President of the
Botanical Society of Washington 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 ...
in 1917. From 1920 to 1944 he also studied the taxonomy and distributions of plants of Arizona. A major collaborator during this period was
Robert Hibbs Peebles Robert Hibbs Peebles (1900–1956) was an American botanist and agronomist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. He is known for his contributions to the flora of the American Southwest and work on breeding cotton. His 1951 ...
, Kearney's junior colleague at the Department, with whom Kearney published many papers on cotton genetics and plant taxonomy. The contributions of Kearney and Peebles to the science of cotton growing have been recognized as "among the most outstanding of all time." The rare, endangered Arizona plant '' Amsonia kearneyana'' (commonly known as Kearney's bluestar), was named after Kearney in 1928. The genus '' Kearnemalvastrum'' (
Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...
), containing two species in Latin America, was posthumously named in honor of Kearney. Kearney retired from the Department of Agriculture in 1944, after which he moved to
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, and became a research associate at the
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...
, where he continued his taxonomic studies and collaborations with Peebles. He and Peebles published the first edition of ''Arizona Flora'' in 1951, a comprehensive guide to plants of the state that remains a standard reference a half-century later. Kearney was named an honorary curator, and was the subject of biographies and tribute articles by his colleagues. Kearney received the Certificate of Merit by the
Botanical Society of America The Botanical Society of America (BSA) represents professional and amateur botanists, researchers, educators and students in over 80 countries of the world. It functions as a United States nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership society. History The soci ...
in August, 1956. Kearney died in San Francisco on October 19, 1956, at the age of 82. In 1967, botanist David Martin Bates, published 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 (belonging to the family
Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...
), from
Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
as '' Kearnemalvastrum'', in Kearney's honour. __NOTOC__


Selected works

*Kearney, Thomas H. (1898). A revision of the North American species of ''Calamagrostis''. In: Studies on American Grasses. Bulletin 11, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. *Kearney, Thomas H. (1935). The North American species of ''Sphaeralcea'' subgenus ''Eusphaeralcea''. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press. *Kearney, Thomas H., and Robert H. Peebles. (1942). Flowering plants and ferns of Arizona. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. *Kearney, T. H, and R. H. Peebles. 1960. Arizona Flora: with supplement by John Thomas Howell, Elizabeth McLintock and collaborators. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.


References


Further reading

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kearney, Thomas Henry American botanists American agronomists 1874 births 1956 deaths People associated with the California Academy of Sciences Scientists from Cincinnati United States Department of Agriculture people