Martín Cárdenas Hermosa (November 12, 1899 – February 14, 1973) was a

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

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 ...

. Cárdenas is considered one of the most important botanists in Bolivia's history. He is responsible for recording some 6,500 species of plants in his native country.

Biography

In 1918, he graduated as a Bachelor in Biological Sciences and Letters and secured a scholarship to continue his studies at the Instituto Normal Superior in

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

, where he specialized in Biology and Chemistry. He graduated in 1922. On his vacations in

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

he went for long walks by gathering plants, of which he soon recorded their characteristics in books and journals at the Municipal Library of La Paz. At that time, Cardenas had met Swedish botanist Erik Asplund, who had also shown a keen interest in studying the plants in Bolivia. Asplund played an important role in enhancing his knowledge of botany and was an early mentor for him. By May 1922, Cárdenas was already professor in the Special Natural Sciences and Chemistry, being an auxiliary senior instructor and later obtained a title at the ''Instituto Normal Superior de La Paz''. In his career, over a 40 or 50-year period, Cárdenas classified 6,500 species of the flora of Bolivia, and described 180 new species and 16 varieties of

cactus A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

. He also registered 26 types of ''

Solanum tuberosum The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

'' with six varieties. In 1951, he was awarded the

Mary Soper Pope Memorial Award The Mary Soper Pope Memorial Award, informally known as the Mary Soper Pope Medal, was awarded by the Cranbrook Institute of Science of Detroit, Michigan, for notable achievement in plant sciences. It was inaugurated in 1946, and the last award wa ...

in botany."Cranbrook Institute of Science Director's Papers"
Cranbrook website. Retrieved Dec. 27, 2016.

External links

Biography at Amazonia BoliviaThe International Plant Names Index
Bolivian botanists 1899 births 1973 deaths {{bolivia-botanist-stub