Paul Carpenter Standley (March 21, 1884 – June 2, 1963) was an American botanist known for his work on neotropical plants.

Biography

Standley was born on March 21, 1884, in Avalon, Missouri. He attended

Drury College Drury University, formerly Drury College and originally Springfield College, is a private university in Springfield, Missouri, United States. The university's mission statement describes itself as "church-related". It enrolls about 1,590 undergr ...

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the List of cities in Missouri, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County, Missouri, Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...

, and New Mexico State College, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1907, and received a master's degree from New Mexico State College in 1908. He remained at New Mexico State College as an assistant from 1908 to 1909. He was the assistant curator of the Division of Plants at the

United States National Museum 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 ...

from 1909 to 1922. He wrote "Flora of Barro Colorado Island, Panama" in May 1927. In the spring of 1928, he took a position at the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

in Chicago, where worked until 1950. While at the Field Museum he did fieldwork in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

between 1938 and 1941. After his retirement in 1950, he moved to the '' Escuela Agricola Panamericana'' in Honduras, where he worked in the library and

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, 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 sh ...

and did field work until 1956, when he stopped doing botanical work. In 1957 he moved to

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

, Honduras, where he died on June 2, 1963. He contributed to the ''Trees and Shrubs of Mexico, Flora of Guatemala'', and ''Flora of Costa Rica''.

Family

His sister Penelope "Nellie" Standley was also a botanical collector.

Honours

Three genera of plants have been named after him; in 1932, botanist Alexander Curt Brade published '' Standleya'', which is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from Brazil, belonging to the family

Rubiaceae Rubiaceae () is a family (biology), 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 Petiole ( ...

. Then in 1971, botanists R.M. King & H. Rob. published '' Standleyanthus'', which is a genus of

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

n plants in the boneset tribe within the sunflower family. Lastly in 1993, botanist Frank Almeda published '' Stanmarkia'', which is a genus of

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 ...

. The name also honours another American botanist

Julian Alfred Steyermark Julian Alfred Steyermark (January 27, 1909 – October 15, 1988) was a Venezuelan American botanist. His focus was on New World vegetation, and he specialized in the family Rubiaceae. Life and work Julian Alfred Steyermark was born in St. Loui ...

(1909–1988). He is also honoured in the naming of several species, including '' Simira standleyi''. There are 6439 names of plant species published by Standl.

References

External links

* * *
Standley's botanical collecting notebooks vol.1
in Field Museum Digital Collections
more volumes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Standley, Paul Carpenter Orchidologists 1884 births 1963 deaths Botanists active in Central America People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History New Mexico State University alumni People from Livingston County, Missouri 20th-century American botanists