Julian Alfred Steyermark

Julian Alfred Steyermark ( born January 27, 1909 in St. Louis, Missouri, † 15 October 1988) was an American botanist. His focus was the New World fauna, his specialty, the family of Rubiaceae ( Rubiaceae ). Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Steyerm. ".

Life and work

Julian Alfred Steyermark was the only child of businessman Leo L. Steyermark and Mamie I. Steyermark (nee Isaacs ). Steyermark studied at the Henry Shaw School of Botany of the University of Washington, where he in 1933 with the Ph.D. completed.

Steyermark main works are the Flora of the Venezuelan Guyana, the Flora of Missouri and the Flora of Guatemala. Throughout his life he collected in twenty-six countries over 130,000 plants, which earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. He himself wrote the first description of 2,392 taxa, including a family, 38 genera and 1864 species.

Steyermark was curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The plant genus Steyermarkia Standlschmaus. and Steyerbromelia L.B.Sm. has been named after him.