Agostino Todaro (14 January 1818 – 18 April 1892) was an Italian

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He was born and died in

Palermo, Italy Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. He was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and became the director of the botanical gardens in Palermo. Starting with 1864 he edited the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

''Flora Sicula exsiccata''. Todaro published the ''Hortus Botanicus Panormitanus'' in 1876–1878. In 1843, botanist

Filippo Parlatore Filippo Parlatore (Palermo, 8 August 1816 – Florence, 9 September 1877) was an Italian botanist. He studied medicine at Palermo, but practiced only for a short time, his chief activity being during the cholera epidemic of 1837. Although at tha ...

published ''

Todaroa ''Todaroa'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. It just contains one known species, ''Todaroa aurea''. It is also in the subfamily ''Apioideae'' and it is part of tribe ''Scandiceae'' and subtribe ''Scandic ...

'', which is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from the Canary Islands, belonging to the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...

. It just contains one known species, ''Todaroa aurea'' , and it is named after Agostino Todaro. The standard

botanical author abbreviation In botanical nomenclature, author citation is the way of citing the person or group of people who validly published a botanical name, i.e. who first published the name while fulfilling the formal requirements as specified by the ''International Cod ...

Tod. is applied to

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

he described.

Main works

''Orchideae siculae sive enumeratio orchidearum in Sicilia hucusque detectarum'', Ex Empedoclea Officina, Panormi 1842
*''Rapporto della Commissione per l'imboschimento e censuazione di Monte Pellegrino'', con G. Schiro, Lima, Palermo 1851.
''Nuovi generi e nuove specie di piante coltivate nel Real Orto Botanico di Palermo'', Pagando e Piola, Palermo 1858
*''Relazione sui cotoni coltivati al r. Orto botanico nell'anno 1864'', Lorsnaider, Palermo 1864. *''Synopsis plantarum acotyledonearum vascularium sponte provenientium in Sicilia insulisque adjacentibus'', Lao, Palermo 1866. *''Relazione sui cotoni coltivati nel r. Orto botanico di Palermo nell'anno 1876'', Lao, Palermo 1877. *''Relazione sulla cultura dei cotoni in Italia, seguita da una monografia del genere

Gossypium ''Gossypium'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Gossypieae of the Malva, mallow family, Malvaceae, from which cotton is harvested. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World, Old and New Worlds. There are abo ...

'', Stamp. Reale, Palermo 1878. *''Sopra una nuova specie di Fourcroya'', Lao, Palermo 1879.

References

G.M. Mira, ''Bibliografia siciliana ovvero Gran Dizionario Bibliografico'', vol. II, Gaudiano, Palermo 1881, pp. 414-415, ''ad vocem''
*D. Ottonello, ''Il ruolo di

Vincenzo Tineo Vincenzo Tineo ( Militello in Val di Catania, 27 February 1791 – Palermo, 25 July 1856) was an Italian Botanist. From 1814 to 1856 he was the director of the Palermo Botanical Garden. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation wh ...

e Agostino Todaro nello sviluppo della botanica a Palermo'', in G. Liotta (a cura di), ''I naturalisti e la cultura scientifica siciliana nell'800'', Stass, Palermo 1987, pp. 295–310.

External links

Scheda sul sito del Senato

''Scheda autorità'' del «Sistema Bibliotecario Nazionale»
19th-century Italian botanists Scientists from Palermo Pteridologists Botanists with author abbreviations 1818 births 1892 deaths {{Sicily-stub