Paul Carpenter Standley

{{short description|American botanist (1884-1963)}} {{Infobox scientist | name =  | birth_name =  | birth_date =  | birth_place = Avalon, Missouri, United States | death_date = {{death date and age |1963|06|02 |1884|03|21}} | death_place = Tegucigalpa, Honduras | fields = Botany | workplaces = {{plainlist| *United States National Museum *Field Museum of Natural History}} | education = {{plainlist| *Drury College *New Mexico State College}} | author_abbrev_bot = Standl. }} [[File:Clusia orthoneura.jpg|thumb|''Clusia orthoneura'', first described by Paul Carpenter Standley in 1940.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tropicos.org/Name/7800193 |title=Tropicos - Name - Clusia orthoneura Standl.}}</ref>]]

'''Paul Carpenter Standley''' (March 21, 1884 – June 2, 1963) was an American botanist known for his work on neotropical plants.

Standley was born in Missouri, United States, in 1884. He worked at the United States National Museum and the Field Museum of Natural History. While working at the Field Museum, Standley conducted fieldwork in Guatemala. He retired in 1950, and died in 1963.

Standley is the namesake of three genera of plants, and several species, including ''Simira standleyi''.

==Biography== Standley was born on March 21, 1884, in Avalon, Missouri.<ref>Homage to Standley, p. 40</ref> He attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, and New Mexico State College, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1907, and received a master's degree from New Mexico State College in 1908. He remained at New Mexico State College as an assistant from 1908 to 1909. He was the assistant curator of the Division of Plants at the United States National Museum from 1909 to 1922.<ref>{{cite web |last1=United States National Museum Division of Plants |title=Records, 1902-1922 |url=http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_216790 |website=Smithsonian Institution Archives |access-date=15 May 2015}}</ref><ref>Paul Carpenter Standley {{google books|9KM2AQAAMAAJ|Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol. 23, Trees and Shrubs of Mexico (1920)}}</ref>

He wrote "Flora of Barro Colorado Island, Panama" in May 1927.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flora of Barro Colorado Island, Panama (Standley) {{!}} International Plant Names Index |url=https://www.ipni.org/p/5592-2 |website=www.ipni.org |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref>

In the spring of 1928, he took a position at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where worked until 1950. While at the Field Museum he did fieldwork in Guatemala between 1938 and 1941.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cdm17032.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17032coll1/id/1217/rec/10 |title=FMNH Third Botanical Expedition to Guatemala, Notes |last=Standley |first=Paul Carpenter |date=1941 |website=Field Museum Digital Collections |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref> After his retirement in 1950, he moved to the ''Escuela Agricola Panamericana'' in Honduras, where he worked in the library and herbarium and did field work until 1956, when he stopped doing botanical work. In 1957 he moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he died on June 2, 1963.

He contributed to the ''Trees and Shrubs of Mexico, Flora of Guatemala'', and ''Flora of Costa Rica''.

== Family == His sister Penelope "Nellie" Standley was also a botanical collector.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://transcription.si.edu/view/6712/SIA-SIA2012-8065 |title=Cacti, 1909 - 1917 |last=Rose |first=Joseph Nelson |date=c. 1917 |website=transcription.si.edu |access-date=2020-01-06}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=No mention of relationship.|date=August 2022}}

==Honours== Three genera of plants have been named after him; in 1932, botanist Alexander Curt Brade published ''Standleya'', which is a genus of flowering plants from Brazil, belonging to the family Rubiaceae.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Standleya'' Brade {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:295515-2 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=19 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Then in 1971, botanists R.M. King & H. Rob. published ''Standleyanthus'', which is a genus of Central American plants in the boneset tribe within the sunflower family.<ref>D.J.N.Hind & H.E.Robinson. 2007. Tribe Eupatorieae In: ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol.VIII. (Joachim W.Kadereit & Charles Jeffrey, volume editors. Klaus Kubitzky, general editor). Springer-Verlag. Berlin, Heidelberg.</ref><ref>[http://www.tropicos.org/Name/40004353 Tropicos, ''Standleyanthus'' R.M. King & H. Rob.]</ref> Lastly in 1993, botanist Frank Almeda published ''Stanmarkia'', which is a genus of flowering plants from Mexico and Guatemala, belonging to the family Melastomataceae. The name also honours another American botanist Julian Alfred Steyermark (1909–1988).<ref>{{cite web |title=''Stanmarkia'' Almeda {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:973334-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=25 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref> He is also honoured in the naming of several species, including ''Simira standleyi''.

There are 6439 names of plant species published by Standl.<ref>{{cite web |title=Standley, Paul Carpenter {{!}} International Plant Names Index |url=https://www.ipni.org/a/10019-1 |website=www.ipni.org |access-date=19 November 2023}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Paul Carpenter Standley}} * {{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Louis O. |date=1963 |title=Paul Carpenter Standley, 1884 - 1963 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1217870 |journal=Taxon |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=245–247 |doi=10.1002/j.1996-8175.1963.tb00039.x |jstor=1217870 |issn=0040-0262|url-access=subscription }} *{{Cite book |title=Homage to Standley: Papers in Honor of Paul C. Standley |publisher=Chicago Natural Museum Press |year=1963 |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Louis O. |url=https://archive.org/details/homagetostandley00chic/mode/1up}} *[https://cdm17032.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17032coll1/id/1840/rec/8 Standley's botanical collecting notebooks vol.1] in Field Museum Digital Collections; [https://cdm17032.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17032coll1/search/searchterm/standley%2C%20paul%20carpenter%2C%201884%20-%201963/field/author/mode/exact/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc more volumes]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Standley, Paul Carpenter}} Category:Orchidologists Category:1884 births Category:1963 deaths Category:Botanists active in Central America Category:People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History Category:New Mexico State University alumni Category:People from Livingston County, Missouri Category:20th-century American botanists