Alan Meerow

Last updated
Alan W. Meerow
Born1952
NationalityAmerican
Known forContributions to the taxonomy of the Amaryllidaceae, horticulture of palms and tropical ornamentals
Scientific career
Fields Botany, Horticulture
Author abbrev. (botany) Meerow

Alan W. Meerow is an American botanist, born in New York City in 1952. He specializes in the taxonomy of the family Amaryllidaceae and the horticulture of palms and tropical ornamental plants. He also works on the population genetics and molecular systematics of cycads and palms.

Contents

He studied at the Bronx High School of Science and then at the University of New York. Dropping out after a year, aged 19, he moved to Santa Cruz, California. After living on a farm for four years he decided to resume his studies in botany and horticulture at the University of California.

Initially his interest in botany was focused on trees, working for three years in the arboretum of the University. He graduated in December 1978 and continued his postgraduate study at the University of Florida, after working for two years at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, where his interest in Amaryllidaceae was stimulated. His master's thesis, in 1983, was on the taxonomy of the genus Eucharis . He continued with the same subject in his doctoral studies, producing his thesis entitled "A Monograph of Eucharis and Caliphruria (Amaryllidaceae)" in 1986.

He then moved to the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center where he was a palm and tropical ornamental specialist. As well as carrying out research on the phylogeny and taxonomy of the Amaryllidaceae, he bred Hippeastrum and other ornamental species. In 1998 the International Bulb Society awarded him the Herbert Medal in recognition of his contributions to the knowledge of bulbous plants. [1]

From October 1999 until July 2019, he was located at the National Germplasm Repository of the United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), based in Miami, working on the conservation, genetics, systematics, characterization, and breeding of species of subtropical and tropical ornamentals. [2] [3] In 2005, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists awarded him the Peter Raven Award for Scientific Outreach. [4] In 2017, he was awarded the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration by the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Upon retirement from USDA, Meerow became a Research Fellow of the Montgomery Botanical Center in Coral Gables, FL, and is an adjunct professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Selected publications

Meerow has published over 250 scientific papers, numerous magazine and university extension articles, and is the author or co-author of three popular books on palms.

The standard author abbreviation Meerow is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hippeastrum</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae

Hippeastrum is a genus of about 90 species, and over 600 hybrids and cultivars, of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, from Mexico south to Argentina and on some islands in the Caribbean. The majority have large, fleshy bulbs—usually about the size of a softball—and tall, broad, strap-like leaves that are (generally) evergreen, and large red or purple flowers. Numerous colors and cultivars have been created over the past hundred years.

<i>Rhodophiala</i> Former genus of flowering plants

Rhodophiala was a genus of herbaceous, perennial and bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family. It consisted of about 30 South American species distributed in southern Brazil, Argentina, and, specially, in Chile. Most of the species are known colloquially as añañuca. It has now been submerged in Zephyranthes.

<i>Rhodolirium</i> Genus of flowers

Rhodolirium is a small South American genus in the tribe Hippeastreae of the family Amaryllidaceae. Although originally described by Philippi in 1858 it has long remained buried in other taxa, principally Hippeastrum and more recently Rhodophiala. Only in recent years has it been rehabilitated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griffineae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

The Griffineae is a tribe in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It includes 3 genera with 22 species endemic to Brazil in South America. A typical character of the representatives of the tribe are the flowers - They are blue or lilac and collected into an umbel. Only the members of this tribe and the genus Lycoris are able to form flowers with such color in the whole subfamily Amaryllidoideae of Amaryllidaceae. The species in this group are typically perennial and produce bulbs. The leaves are green, with elliptical form in most of the cases but in some members, as in Worsleya, they are sword-shaped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amaryllidaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus Amaryllis and is commonly known as the amaryllis family. The leaves are usually linear, and the flowers are usually bisexual and symmetrical, arranged in umbels on the stem. The petals and sepals are undifferentiated as tepals, which may be fused at the base into a floral tube. Some also display a corona. Allyl sulfide compounds produce the characteristic odour of the onion subfamily (Allioideae).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippeastreae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Hippeastreae is a tribe of plants belonging to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae). Species in this tribe are distributed in South America. Flowers are large and showy, zygomorphic, with the stamens in varying lengths, inflorescence bracts are often fused basally. The seeds are flattened, winged or D-shaped. Reported basic chromosome numbers are x= 8-13, 17, and higher. All the species in this tribe present a remarkable aesthetic interest and horticultural value.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amaryllidoideae</span> Subfamily of flowering plants

Amaryllidoideae is a subfamily of monocot flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, order Asparagales. The most recent APG classification, APG III, takes a broad view of the Amaryllidaceae, which then has three subfamilies, one of which is Amaryllidoideae, and the others are Allioideae and Agapanthoideae. The subfamily consists of about seventy genera, with over eight hundred species, and a worldwide distribution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippeastrinae</span> Subtribe of flowering plants

Hippeastrinae is a subtribe of plants classified under the tribe Hippeastreae. It belongs to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae).

<i>Phycella</i> Genus of flowering plants

Phycella is a genus of herbaceous, perennial bulbous flowering plants belonging to the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. The genus consists of five species distributed from central Chile to northwestern Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narcisseae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Narcisseae is a small tribe of plants belonging to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae), where it forms part of the Eurasian clade, and is one of three tribes in the European (Mediterranean) clade. It contains two genera and approximately 58 species, but probably also Lapiedra. The two genera are distinguished from each other by the presence of a paraperigonium in the former.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galantheae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Galantheae is a tribe of European, West Asian and North African flowering plants belonging to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae). As of 2017, it contains three genera, although more were included previously. The position of the ovary is inferior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pancratieae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Pancratieae are a small European tribe of subfamily Amaryllidoideae, consisting of two genera including the type genus, Pancratium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traubiinae</span> Subtribe of flowering plants

Traubiinae is a subtribe of plants classified under the tribe Hippeastreae. It belongs to the subfamily Amaryllidoideae of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eustephieae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Eustephieae is a flowering plant tribe in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It forms part of the Andean clade, one of two clades in The Americas.

Stenomesseae was a tribe, where it forms part of the Andean clade, one of two American clades. The tribe was originally described by Traub in his monograph on the Amaryllidaceae in 1963, as Stenomessae based on the type genus Stenomesson. In 1995 it was recognised that Eustephieae was a distinct group separate from the other Stenomesseae. Subsequently, the Müller-Doblies' (1996) divided tribe Eustephieae into two subtribes, Stenomessinae and Eustephiinae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eucharideae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Eucharideae is a tribe of plants within the family Amaryllidaceae. It was augmented in 2000 by Meerow et al. following a molecular phylogenetic study that revealed that many elements of the tribe Stenomesseae segregated with it, rather than separately, and were subsequently submerged in it. Further revisions were made in 2020, when three genera were merged. It forms one of the tribes of the Andean subclade of the American clade of the subfamily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinantheae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Clinantheae is a tribe, where it forms part of the Andean clade, one of two American clades. The tribe was described in 2000 by Alan Meerow et al. as a result of a molecular phylogenetic study of the American Amaryllidoideae. This demonstrated that the tribe Stenomesseae, including the type genus Stenomesson was polyphyletic. Part of the tribe segregated with the Eucharideae and were submerged into it, while the other part formed a unique subclade. Since the type species of Stenomesson was not part of the second subclade, it was necessary to form a new name for the remaining species together with the other genera that remained. This was Clinanthus, the oldest name for these species, and consequently the tribe Clinantheae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hymenocallideae</span> Tribe of flowering plants

Hymenocallideae is a tribe, where it forms part of the Andean clade, one of two American clades. The tribe was originally recognised by both Meerow (1995) and the Muller-Doblies' (1996). Its phylogenetic position within the Amaryllidoideae was established by Meerow et al. in 2000, while in-depth infratribal relationships were established in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crininae</span> Subtribe of flowering plants

Crininae is one of four subtribes within the tribe Amaryllideae, with a pantropical distribution (Crinum) and also sub-Saharan Africa.

References

  1. International Bulb Society, 1998 Herbert Medalist Alan W. Meerow, archived from the original on 2008-09-19, retrieved 2011-01-22
  2. US Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service
  3. Pacific Bulb Society: Alan Meerow
  4. Francisco-Ortega, Javier (2006), "Alan W. Meerow—Recipient of the 2005 Peter Raven Award", Systematic Botany, 31 (1): 5–7, doi:10.1600/036364406775971750, S2CID   86156521
  5. International Plant Names Index.  Meerow.

Bibliography