{{short description|American botanist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Alice Faber Tryon | image = Alicetryon brazil.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Alice Tryon in Brazil | birth_date = August 2, 1920 | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|2009|03|29|1920|08|02}} | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | residence = | fields = Botany | workplaces = Gray Herbarium, Harvard University | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = University of Wisconsin–Madison<br>Washington University in St. Louis | notable_students = | known_for = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = A.F.Tryon | spouse = Rolla M. Tryon | footnotes = }}
'''Alice Faber Tryon''' (1920–2009) was an American botanist who specialized in the systematics of ferns and other spore-dispersed plants (pteridology).<ref name="obit">{{cite journal|last1=Gastony|first1=G. J.|last2=Barrington|first2=D.S.|last3=Conant|first3=D.S.|title=Obituary: Alice Faber Tryon (1920–2009)|journal=American Fern Journal|date=2009|volume=99|issue=4|pages=231–235|doi=10.1640/0002-8444-99.4.231|s2cid=86162156|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/230944 }}</ref> She had two general areas of interest in her work, first incorporating the use of spore surface patterns into the understanding of fern diversity and systematics, and second the fern family Pteridaceae.
== Biography == Alice Faber Tryon was born Alice Elizabeth Faber in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 2, 1920, to Arthur and Laura Bindrich Faber.<ref name="obit"/>
Alice Tryon completed her Bachelor's degree in 1941 at Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (now the University of Wisconsin).<ref name="obit" /> She completed her master’s thesis on the taxonomic utility of spore characters in the spikemoss genus ''Selaginella'' at the University of Wisconsin in 1945. Her Doctoral degree she received at Washington University in 1952, where her PhD dissertation was on the diversity and taxonomy of the New World species of ''Pellaea'', a genus of xerically adapted ferns in the Pteridaceae.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title = Rolla Milton Tryon Jr.|url = http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/06/rolla-milton-tryon-jr/|website = Harvard Gazette| date=3 June 2013 |access-date = 2015-12-17}}</ref> She first began working with Rolla Milton Tryon, Jr. in 1945 as a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1946, she became a member of the American Fern Society and became an honorary member in 1978.<ref name="obit" /> The Tryons moved to Harvard in 1958, where they spent the majority of their professional careers.<ref name="obit2">{{cite journal |last1 = Gastony|first1 = Gerald J.|last2 = Barrington|first2 = David S.|last3 = Conant|first3 = David S.|title = Obituary: Rolla Milton Tryon, Jr. (1916–2001)|journal = American Fern Journal|year = 2002|volume = 92|issue = 1|pages = 1–9|doi=10.1640/0002-8444(2002)092[0001:ormtj]2.0.co;2| s2cid=86139846 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/230750 }}</ref> At Harvard, they organized and offered an annual New England Fern Conference, which brought students and professors together in an informal and productive setting.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Working with Ferns: Issues and Applications|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=smtpBM7UgXEC|publisher = Springer Science & Business Media|date = 2010-11-11|isbn = 9781441971623|first1 = Helena|last1 = Fernández|first2 = Ashwani|last2 = Kumar|first3 = Angeles|last3 = Revilla}}</ref> Becoming the first woman member of the New England Botanical Club in 1968, Tryon was elected President in 1978.<ref name="obit"/>
After retiring from Harvard, the Tryons founded the Institute for Systematic Botany and endowed the Tryon Lecture Series.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title = Obituary: Rolla Milton Tryon Jr. (1916-2001)|url = https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002914619#page/2/mode/2up/search/alice|website = |access-date = 2015-12-17|date = March 2002|publisher = American Fern Journal}}</ref>
Throughout her career she worked closely with her husband, traveling internationally and frequently publishing together—including their systematic survey of the ferns, with emphasis on tropical America.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Tryon|first1=R.M.|last2=Tryon|first2=A.F.|title=Ferns and Allied Plants with Special Reference to Tropical America|date=1982|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=New York}}</ref> Her work on spore surface patterns was enhanced by her incorporation of scanning electron microscope images. With Bernard Lugardon, an authority on the interior structure of fern spores using transmission electron microscope images, published a complete survey of fern spore diversity in 1991.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tryon|first1=A.F.|last2=Lugardon|first2=B.|title=Spores of the Pteridophyta|date=1991|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=New York}}</ref> Tryon also made significant contributions to the study of fern reproductive biology with her studies of apomixis in ''Pellaea''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tryon|first1=A.F.|title=Comparisons of sexual and apogamous races in the fern genus ''Pellaea''|journal=Rhodora|date=1968|volume=70|pages=1–24}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tryon|first1=A.F.|title=Spores, chromosomes and relations of the fern ''Pellaea atropurpurea''|journal=Rhodora|date=1972|volume=74|pages=220–241}}</ref>
In 2002, her collection was donated to the Alice and Rolla Tryon Pteridophyte Library at the University of Vermont.<ref name="obit" />
In 2014, ''Tryonia'' was described as a new taenitidoid fern genus in the Pteridaceae segregated from ''Jamesonia'' and ''Eriosorus''. The name honored Tryon for her "extraordinary" work in fern systematics, which included publishing revisions of both previous genera.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Tryonia, a new taenitidoid fern genus segregated from Jamesonia and Eriosorus (Pteridaceae)|journal = PhytoKeys|date = 2014-02-26|issn = 1314-2011|pmc = 4023336|pmid = 24843287|pages = 23–43|issue = 35|doi = 10.3897/phytokeys.35.6886|first1 = Alyssa T.|last1 = Cochran|first2 = Jefferson|last2 = Prado|first3 = Eric|last3 = Schuettpelz | doi-access=free }}</ref>
Tryon died March 29, 2009, in Pensacola, Florida.<ref name="obit"/>
{{botanist|A.F.Tryon|inline=yes}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tryon, Alice F.}} Category:1920 births Category:2009 deaths Category:American women botanists Category:20th-century American botanists Category:American pteridologists Category:University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni Category:20th-century American women biologists