Sidney Fay Blake
Sidney Fay Blake | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | December 31, 1959 | (aged 67)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | United States Department of Agriculture |
Author abbrev. (botany) | S.F.Blake |
Sidney Fay Blake (1892–1959) was an American botanist and plant taxonomist, "recognized as one of the world's experts on botanical nomenclature."[1]
Biography
Blake was born in 1892 in
Bureau of Plant Industry for the United States Department of Agriculture, and worked there till he died in 1959.[2] In 1943 he was elected president of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.[1] Blake published many articles and monographs but only one two-volume work, Geographical Guide to Floras of the World. The first volume, co-authored by Alice C. Atwood (1876–1947), was published in 1942.[3] The second volume, written by Blake alone, was published in 1961 two years after his death.[2]
His area was the
Compositae. In 1956 he was named one of the 50 greatest living botanists in America by the Botanical Society of America. Blake contributed a treatment of the Polygalaceae to the original North American Flora. Additionally, Blake was a bibliographer. The "Geographical Guide to the Floras of the World," which he began with Alice C. Atwood, a librarian at the Department of Agriculture library, provides a reference to obscure and famous floras, both books and articles, arranged geographically.[1]
He married the entomologist Doris M. Holmes in 1918. They had one daughter.[1]
In 1930, botanist
Standl. published Neoblakea, a genus of flowering plants from South America,belonging to the family Rubiaceae, with the name honouring Sidney Fay Blake.[4] Then in 2011, botanists E.E.Schill. and Panero published Sidneya, which is a genus of flowering plants from Mexico and surrounds belonging to the family Asteraceae.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d "Sidney Fay Blake Papers". International Plant Center, Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden.
- ^ Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
- ^ Geographical Guide to Floras of the World, Part I. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. 1942.
- ^ "Neoblakea Standl. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
- ^ "Sidneya E.E.Schill. & Panero | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. S.F.Blake.