Paul H. Allen

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This article is about the botanist. For the composer, see Paul Hastings Allen.
For other people named Paul Allen, see Paul Allen (disambiguation).
Paul Hamilton Allen
Born(1911-08-29)August 29, 1911
Enid, Oklahoma
DiedNovember 14, 1963(1963-11-14) (aged 52)
New Orleans, Louisiana
CitizenshipUnited States
Scientific career
Author abbrev. (botany)P.H.Allen

Paul Hamilton Allen (1911–1963) was an American

botanist noted for his work on the ecology of Central America, orchid systematics and economically important species including bananas. He was married to the former Dorothy Osdieck of Kirkwood, Missouri.[1]

Allen was born in

apprentice at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri.[1]

Panama

Beginning in late 1934 Allen accompanied

Orchidaceae that were discovered by Allen and all of those that were named in his honor."[8]

During

American Journal of Tropical Medicine in 1943.[9] He joined the United States Rubber Development Corporation and worked on the collection of rubber from wild Hevea trees in the Colombian Amazon.[1]

After the end of the World War II Allen completed an account of the

Escuela Agricola Panamericana near Tegucigalpa in Honduras. Allen then conducted a survey of the forest resources of El Salvador[1] and established the Paul C. Standley Herbarium.[10]
In 1959 he returned to the United Fruit Company's research department, where he served as the director of the Lancetilla Experimental Station.

In 1959 the United Fruit Company launched a major banana breeding project. Allen and

J. J. Ochse were selected to lead collecting expeditions to Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Between 1959 and 1961 they collected nearly 800 accessions of wild and cultivated species and varieties of bananas from Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sri Lanka.[10] This collection was described by botanist and plant collector Wilson Popenoe as "one of the grandest and most successful in the history of plant introduction".[10]

Allen then returned to Honduras where he worked on sorting and classifying the collections. He also compiled annotated check-lists of hundreds of common names. Much of this work was ongoing at the time of his death in 1963.[10] He died of cancer in 1963,[1] at the height of his career.[10] His collection of banana germplasm remains the basis of the breeding program of the Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola.[10]

Allen authored

orchid family.[11] Thousands of herbarium specimens were submitted by Allen for study and numerous species from different families are named in his honor.[12] Allen's papers are held by the Hunt Institution for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University, together with artwork by his wife, Dorothy.[13]

The standard author abbreviation P.H.Allen is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[14]

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 1216618
    .
  2. ^ "A. A. Hunter P. H. Allen". Harvard University Herbarium. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  3. ^ Moore, George T. (1935). "Forty-Sixth Annual Report of the Director". Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin. XXIII (January): 46, 93–95, 106. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Orchids and orchidology in Central America" (PDF). Lankesteriana. 9 (1–2): 154, 162–164. August 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  5. ^ Lindsay, Walter (1939). "Report of the Canal Zone Experiment Gardens". Mount Hope, C. Z. Retrieved 15 November 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ "Transfer of Tropical Station". Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin. 28 (January): 15. 1940. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  7. ^ "Army Project". Annual Report of the Canal Zone: 12–17. 1940. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  8. ^ "Orchids and orchidology in Central America" (PDF). Lankesteriana. 9 (1–2): 358–378. August 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  9. S2CID 43111811
    .
  10. ^ a b c d e f F. Rosales, E. Arnaud and J. Coto (ed.). A catalogue of wild and cultivated bananas. A tribute to the work of Paul Allen (PDF). Montpellier, France: INIBAP. p. 364.
  11. ^ International Plant Names Index
  12. ^ "Specimen Search for Senior Collector Allen, Paul". Tropicos. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  13. ^ "Register of Botanical Biography". Hunt Institute. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  14. ^ International Plant Names Index.  P.H.Allen.

External links

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