José Cuatrecasas (1903–1996) was a Spanish

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He was born on March 19, 1903, in

Camprodon Camprodon (; from ''Camp Rodó'' "Round Field", ultimately from Latin ''Campus Rotundus'') is a small town in the Comarques of Catalonia, comarca of Ripollès in Province of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain, located in the Pyrenees, near the Fren ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. His research focused on the high-elevation

páramo Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

and sub-páramo regions of the

Andes Mountains The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, especially the flowering plant families

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

and

Malpighiaceae Malpighiaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales. It comprises about 73 genera and 1315 species, all of which are native to the tropics and subtropics. About 80% of the genera and 90% of the species occur in the New World ( ...

. He played an important role in the founding of the Organization for Flora Neotropica. In 1997, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

established the José Cuatrecasas Botanical Fund to "support significant research projects that emulate the spirit of the research of José Cuatrecasas". The Smithsonian also awards a José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany annually.

Honors

*1950

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Multiple plant species have been named for him, including ''

Narcissus cuatrecasasii Narcissus may refer to: Biology * ''Narcissus'' (plant), a genus containing daffodils and others People * Narcissus (mythology), Greek mythological character * Narcissus (wrestler) (2nd century), assassin of the Roman emperor Commodus * Tiberius ...

'', ''

Joseanthus cuatrecasasii ''Joseanthus'' is a genus of South American flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.Jørgensen, P. M. & C. Ulloa Ulloa. 1994. Seed plants of the high Andes of Ecuador—A checklist. AAU Reports 34: 1–443 ; Species * ''Joseanthus chimborazens ...

'', ''

Pradosia cuatrecasasii ''Pradosia'' is a genus of plants in the family Sapotaceae described as a genus in 1872.Liais, Emmanuel. 1872. Climats Geologies, Faune et Geographie Botanique du Bresil 614 Most of the species of ''Pradosia'' are native to Central America, Cen ...

'', and '' Tessmannianthus quadridomius'' (where "quadridomius" is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "cuatre casas").Curiosities of Biological Taxonomy: Etymology: People
compiled by Mark Isaak; published February 26, 2015; retrieved March 18, 2015

Sources

* Kirkbride, Ma Cristina Garcia. "José Cuatrecasas (1903-1996)". ''Taxon'', Vol. 46, No. 1 (February 1997), pp. 132–134. *"Botanical Endowment at Smithsonian", ''Biological Conservation Newsletter'', No. 170 (August 1997)

External links

Cuatrecasas Medal

References

20th-century Spanish botanists Botanists active in South America 1903 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American botanists {{spain-botanist-stub