| Abstract Detail
Historical Section Wahlert , Gregory [1]. In the footsteps of Rev. Richard Baron in Madagascar: post-facto georeferencing of Baron specimens. Most students of Malagasy plant taxonomy will have encountered specimens collected by the Reverend Richard Baron (1847-1907). Of the 7,000-12,000 specimens Baron collected in Madagascar and sent to Europe, ca.1,200 were described as new species, primarily by J. G. Baker at Kew. However, most of Baron's specimens were very poorly labeled, and the type locality for most names cannot be determined. Baron was a missionary of the London Missionary Society who spent nearly 35 years in Madagascar. In addition to his missionary duties, Baron collected plants, studied geology, and wrote scientific and popular books and articles in both Malagasy and English. His Compendium des Plantes Malgaches was the first attempt by anyone to list all of the vascular plants from Madagascar. In the course of revising various plant families for the Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Madagascar, a project of the Missouri Botanical Garden, an attempt was made to post-facto georeference Baron's specimens using information from archived library materials as well as inferring location data based on collections of morphologically distinctive and narrowly distributed species. I report on preliminary findings and progress towards a gazetteer of collecting localities of Baron's specimens from Madagascar. Broader Impacts:
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1 - University Of Utah, Department Of Biology, 257 SOUTH 1400 EAST, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-0840, USA
Keywords:
Richard Baron
Madagascar
georeference
Taxonomy
Kew.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 29
Location: Morrow/Hyatt
Date: Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Time: 10:45 AM
Number: 29003
Abstract ID:914 |
