Julian Alfred Steyermark Explained

Julian Alfred Steyermark
Birth Date:	January 27, 1909
Birth Place:	St. Louis, Missouri
Death Date:	October 15, 1988
Nationality:	Venezuelan American
Field:	Botany
Work Institutions:	Field Museum of Chicago, Instituto Botánico of Caracas, Missouri Botanical Garden
Thesis Year:	1933
Author Abbrev Bot:	Steyerm.
Known For:	Research in New World vegetation, Specialist in the family Rubiaceae

Julian Alfred Steyermark (January 27, 1909 – October 15, 1988) was a Venezuelan American botanist. His focus was on New World vegetation, and he specialized in the family Rubiaceae.^[1]

Life and work

Julian Alfred Steyermark was born in St. Louis, Missouri as the only child of the businessman Leo L. Steyermark and Mamie I. Steyermark (née Isaacs).^[2] He studied at the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1933. His distinguished career included the Field Museum of Chicago, the Instituto Botánico of Caracas, and he was with the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis from 1984 until his death. Steyermark's major works were his Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, Flora of Missouri, and his Flora of Guatemala.

During his life, Steyermark collected over 130,000 plants in twenty-six countries, which earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.^[3] He made the initial descriptions of 2,392 taxa of plants, including one family, 38 genera, and 1,864 species.^[3]

The standard author abbreviation Steyerm. is used to indicate Steyermark when citing a botanical name.^[4]

Honours

Julian Alfred Steyermark is honoured in several genera of South American plants;^[5]

• Steyermarkina is a genus of plants within the Asteraceae family,^[6]
• Steyermarkochloa is a genus of plants in the Poaceae family.^[7]
• Steyerbromelia in the family Bromeliaceae, published also in 1987,^[8]
• Steyermarkia (in the family Rubiaceae^[9]) was also named in his honor in 1940.^[10]
• Stanmarkia published in 1993, which is a genus of flowering plants from Mexico and Guatemala, belonging to the family Melastomataceae. The name also honours another American botanist Paul Carpenter Standley (1884–1963).^[11]

Steyermark is also commemorated in the scientific name of a species of South American snake, Atractus steyermarki.^[12]

Major works

• Flora of Missouri (1963) Ames, Iowa: The Iowa State University Press. .
• Bromeliaceae of Venezuela with Francisco Oliva-Esteva (1987) Caracas, Venezuela: Graficas Armitano, C. A.

See also

• Charles Brewer-Carías
• Otto Huber (ecologist)

Further reading

• Anonymous . 1989 . Dedication to Julian Steyermark . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden . 76 . 3 . frontispiece . 2399646.
• Raven, P.H. . 1989 . Steyermark recollections . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden . 76 . 3 . 627–651 . 10.2307/2399647 . 2399647.

Notes and References

1. Web site: International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Saint Louis Code), Electronic version . International Association for Plant Taxonomy . 2000 . November 14, 2007.
2. Gerrit Davidse . 1989 . Julian Alfred Steyermark . . 38 . 1 . 160–163 . 1220929 . 10.1002/j.1996-8175.1989.tb04615.x.
3. Mary Susan Taylor . 1989 . Plant taxa described by Julian A. Steyermark . . 76 . 3 . 652–780 . 10.2307/2399648 . 2399648.
4. Web site: Steyermark, Julian Alfred (1909–1988) . Author Details . . August 7, 2011.
5. Book: Burkhardt, Lotte . Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition . Index of Eponymic Plant Names – Extended Edition . Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin . 2018 . 978-3-946292-26-5 . pdf . German . Berlin . 10.3372/epolist2018 . 187926901 . 1 January 2021.
6. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13786280#page/51/mode/1up King, Robert Merrill & Robinson, Harold Ernest 1971. Phytologia 22: 43-45
7. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16167307#page/1017/mode/1up Davidse, Gerrit & Ellis, Roger P. 1987. Steyermarkochloa unifolia, a new genus from Venezuela and Colombia (Poaceae: Arundinoideae: Steyermarkochloeae) Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 71(4): 994-1012, figures 1–27
8. Web site: Bromeliad Society International- Genera Etymology . 2021-12-19 . 2007-02-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070203011214/http://www.bsi.org/brom_info/genera.html . dead .
9. Web site: Steyermarkia Standl. Plants of the World Online Kew Science . Plants of the World Online . 12 March 2021 . en.
10. Book: Fritz Encke . Günther Buchheim . Siegmund Seybold . Robert Zander . 1984 . Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen . 13th . . Stuttgart . 978-3-8001-5017-5.
11. Web site: Stanmarkia Almeda Plants of the World Online Kew Science . Plants of the World Online . 25 May 2021 . en.
12. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Steyermark", p. 254).