Conrad Vernon Morton

Conrad Vernon Morton ( born October 24, 1905 as Walter Vernon Morton in Fresno, California, † July 29, 1972 in Washington, DC) was an American botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " CVMorton ".

Life

Conrad Vernon Morton was born on October 24, 1905 in Fresno, the son of Walter Crow and Morton Morton Nioma Bartholomew, his name was at that time still Walter Vernon Morton. His father was the owner of a roofing and construction industry, he died but as Morton was still very young. In about 1917 his mother Alva B. McCray, an employee of the Santa Fe Railroad married. On the grounds of the McCray family was a wine garden and other gardens; maintained by the Morton's mother rose garden containing about 130 different varieties of roses. Even Morton had as a child the opportunity to plant your own garden and maintain.

In 1924 he began studying at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1926, he changed his first name to Conrad Vernon. At first he devoted himself to the study of physics, mathematics, astronomy, and Slavic languages ​​, only later he took a course in general botany, followed by further courses including in taxonomy, algolog and mycology. In May 1928 he received the title of Bachelor of Arts with the grade cum laude from the University of California.

Initially, he worked for a short time as a teaching fellow in Botany, but soon moved to the " Division of Plants" of the U.S. National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. There he soon devoted himself especially to the study of the Gesneriad ( Gesneriaceae ) and the nightshade family (Solanaceae ) from the mid-1930s also reinforced various ferns. In 1939 he was appointed assistant curator for flowering plants, and attended lectures at George Washington University. Although he did not have a master's degree, he was accepted as a doctoral student there, but in 1946 his work on this project had to stop because he an associate curator, (from 1948 to 1970 curator) of the newly formed " Division of Ferns " of the " Department of Botany " the U.S. National Museum, was appointed. From 1948 to 1959 he was also executive curator of the " Division of Cryptogams " of the museum.

In 1970 he was appointed "Senior Botanist ", which he was free of all administrative tasks. Morton took the opportunity to devote himself again to the nightshade family, especially the Argentine nightshade (Solanum ). In early 1972 he spent three months to Argentina, then worked on the completion of its work on this topic, but died unexpectedly on July 29, 1972 in Washington. The results of his work were completed by Armando Hunziker and Lyman Smith and published in 1976.

Ehrentaxa

To appreciate the work of Morton, a number of new taxa named by different authors after him. These include the genera Mortoniella and Mortoniodendron, as well as various species whose epithet refers to Morton.

Evidence

• David B. Lellinger: Conrad Vernon Morton ( 1905-1972 ). In: American Remote Journal, Volume 63, 1973 pp. 49-60. .