Arthur Cronquist

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Arthur John Cronquist
BornMarch 19, 1919
San Jose, California
DiedMarch 22, 1992 (1992-03-23) (aged 73)
Provo, Utah
NationalityAmerican
Alma materIdaho State University
Utah State University
University of Minnesota
Known forCronquist system
AwardsLinnean Medal (1986)
Leidy Award (1970)[1]
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
InstitutionsNew York Botanical Garden

Arthur John Cronquist (March 19, 1919 – March 22, 1992) was an American biologist,

Compositae. He is considered one of the most influential botanists of the 20th century, largely due to his formulation of the Cronquist system as well as being the primary co-author to the Flora of the Pacific Northwest, still the most up to date flora for three northwest U.S. States to date. Two plant genera in the aster family have been named in his honor. These are Cronquistia, a possible synonym of Carphochaete, and Cronquistianthus, which is sometimes included as a group within Eupatorium. The former was applied by R.M. King and the latter by him and Harold E. Robinson
.

Life

Arthur Cronquist was born on March 19, 1919, in San Jose, California, but he grew up outside of

Boy Scouts of America, through which he gained an appreciation for the outdoors. He did his undergraduate work at the Southern Branch of the University of Idaho (now Idaho State University). During his time there he studied field botany under Ray J. Davis, who was compiling the Flora of Idaho at the time. After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1938 in Biology, he went on to earn a master's degree in biology at Utah State University in 1940 working under Bassett Maguire
. In the same year he married Mabel Allred, who he remained with until his death. They had two children and a fondness for cats.

Due to a childhood accident, Cronquist's right arm was partially disabled, making him unfit for military service in

Henry Gleason. From 1946 to 1948 he held a position at the University of Georgia, followed by a three-year position at Washington State University. Before returning to the New York Botanical Garden where he would spend the rest of his career, he worked as a botanist in Brussels with the U.S. Foreign Aid Program from 1951 to 1952. He died of heart failure on March 22, 1992, while studying specimens of Mentzelia at the herbarium at Brigham Young University
.

Work

Development of the Cronquist system

Main article: Cronquist system

While Cronquist was in his mid-thirties, he began to question the usefulness of

Russian
in order to have access to the scientific literature that the Soviet Union had accumulated, which was largely unknown to the rest of the world. He made several trips to the U.S.S.R. to meet with Takhtajan and other Soviet botanists and translated many botanical works from Russian throughout his life.

Cronquist's first overview of classification was published in 1960,

Jepson Manual (1993), Flora of North America, Flora of China, Flora of Australia
and of course Gleason and Cronquist's Manual of the Vascular Plants, which was published in 1991.

Professor Cronquist was also a passionate and dedicated teacher who mentored countless students. He was a role model for what it meant to be a plant biologist and taxonomist. Among those who knew him, his baritone voice among the herbarium stacks will continue to chill the soul and warm the heart.[tone]

List of selected publications

Arthur Cronquist is probably best remembered for his work dealing with his Cronquist system, which was developed in these and other works:

  • Cronquist, Arthur. (1957). Outline of a new system of families and orders of dicotyledons. Bull. Jard. Bot. Etat Brux. 27: 13–40.
  • Cronquist, Arthur (October 1960). "The divisions and classes of plants". The Botanical Review. 26 (4): 425–482.
    S2CID 43144314
    .
  • Cronquist, Arthur (September 1965). "The Status of the General System of Classification of Flowering Plants".
    JSTOR 2394794
    .
  • Cronquist, Arthur;
    JSTOR 1217531
    .
  • Cronquist, Arthur (1981). An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. New York:
    ISBN 978-0-231-03880-5
    .
  • Cronquist, Arthur (1968). The evolution and classification of flowering plants (1st ed.). London: Nelson.
    ISBN 9780395053461
    .
  • Cronquist, Arthur (1988) [1968]. The evolution and classification of flowering plants (2nd ed.). Bronx, N.Y., USA:
    ISBN 9780893273323. (Available here at Internet Archive
    )
The standard author abbreviation Cronquist is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[4]

References

  1. ^ PANS 2007.
  2. ^ Cronquist 1960.
  3. ^ Cronquist 1988.
  4. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Cronquist.

Bibliography

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