Paulus Johannes Maria "Paul" Maas (born 27 February 1939, in Arnhem) is a botanist from the Netherlands and a specialist in the flora of the neotropics. Maas has identified and named about two hundred fifty plants from the Burmanniaceae, the Costus Family (Costaceae), the Gentian Family (Gentianaceae), the Bloodwort Family (Haemodoraceae), the Banana Family (Musaceae), the Olacaceae, the Triuridaceae, and the Ginger Family (Zingiberaceae). [1]
The Annonaceae and saprotrophic plants from the neotropics, such as the Burmanniaceae, are two major areas of research.
Maas has also worked with the genus Canna (Cannaceae) and has published floristic treatments of this group for the Guianas (Maas 1985) and Ecuador (Maas & Maas 1988).
In 2008, he was honoured when botanists Mols, Kessler & Rogstad published a genus of flowering plants from Indo-China, belonging to the family Annonaceae as Maasia . [2]
Canna or canna lily is the only genus of flowering plants in the family Cannaceae, consisting of 10 species. All of the genus's species are native to the American tropics and naturalized in Europe, India and Africa in the 1860s. Although they grow native to the tropics, most cultivars have been developed in temperate climates and are easy to grow in most countries of the world, as long as they receive at least 6–8 hours average sunlight during the summer, and are moved to a warm location for the winter. See the Canna cultivar gallery for photographs of Canna cultivars.
The Annonaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest family in the Magnoliales. Several genera produce edible fruit, most notably Annona, Anonidium, Asimina, Rollinia, and Uvaria. Its type genus is Annona. The family is concentrated in the tropics, with few species found in temperate regions. About 900 species are Neotropical, 450 are Afrotropical, and the remaining are Indomalayan.
Canna indica, commonly known as Indian shot, African arrowroot, edible canna, purple arrowroot, Sierra Leone arrowroot, is a plant species in the family Cannaceae. It is native to much of South America, Central America, the West Indies, and Mexico. It is also naturalized in the southeastern United States, and much of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
Canna discolor also known as Achira in Colombia is a species of the Canna genus, belonging to the family Cannaceae, found naturally in the range from South Mexico to Colombia, widely introduced elsewhere. It is a perennial growing to 3m. It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. In the north latitudes it is in flower from August to October, and the seeds ripen in October. The flowers are hermaphrodite.
Canna flaccida is a species of the Canna genus, a member of the family Cannaceae. The species is indigenous to the wetlands of the south-central and south-eastern United States from Texas to South Carolina. It is also reportedly naturalized in India, the Philippines, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Peru and southern Brazil.
Canna coccinea is a species of the Canna genus, belonging to the family Cannaceae. A native of northern Argentina, it was introduced in England from South America in 1731.
Canna compacta is a species of the Canna genus, belonging to the family Cannaceae, distributed between the south of Brazil and northern Argentina. Introduced to England from South America in 1820. Not to be confused with C. compacta Bouché, which is a synonym of C. indica L.
Canna tuerckheimii is a species of the Canna genus, belonging to the family Cannaceae. Its specific epithet tuerckheimii commemorates Hans von Türckheim, a 19th-century German plant collector.
Canna pedunculata is a species of the Canna genus, belonging to the family Cannaceae. Native of south-east Brazil at low altitudes. Johnson's Dictionary of 1856 reports that it first entered England in 1820, pedunculata meaning 'long-flower-stalked'.
Canna paniculata is a species of the Canna genus, belonging to the family Cannaceae. Native of southern Mexico, Costa Rica, and tropical South America, except for the Amazon Basin, at 200-2,000m (650-6,500 ft).
Nobuyuki Tanaka is an economic botanist at the Tokyo Metropolitan University, the Makino Botanical Garden in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan.
Tetrameranthus is a genus of plant in family Annonaceae. It contains 7 species, all occurring in South America.
The Canna Agriculture Group contains all of the varieties of Canna used in agriculture. Canna achira and Canna edulis are generic terms used in South America to describe the cannas that have been selectively bred for agricultural purposes, normally derived from C. discolor. It is grown especially for its edible rootstock from which starch is obtained, but the leaves and young seed are also edible, and achira was once a staple foodcrop in Peru and Ecuador.
Hillegonda (Hiltje) Maas-van de Kamer is a botanist at the Institute of Systematic Botany at Utrecht University. She is the wife of Professor Paul Maas and together they have published many papers. She is a specialist in the flora of the neotropics.
Johannes Paulus Lotsy or Jan Paulus Lotsy was a Dutch botanist, specializing in evolution and heredity. He promoted the idea of evolution being driven by hybridization.
Dictyostega is a genus of flowering plants in the Burmanniaceae, first described as a genus in 1840. It contains only one known species, Dictyostega orobanchoides, native to southern Mexico, Central America, Trinidad, and South America ).
Cremastosperma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae, subfamily Malmeoideae, tribe Malmeae. In 2018 there were 34 recognised species distributed in Central and South America.
Maasia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Annonaceae.
Ruizodendron is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Annonaceae. It is part of Malmeoideae subfamily and Malmeeae tribe. The only known species is Ruizodendron ovale.