Cyrus Longworth Lundell (November 5, 1907 – March 28, 1994) was an American botanist.

Education

Lundell did his undergraduate studies at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

and

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , pr ...

. He completed his BA at the later in 1932. He then entered

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

's graduate school of business administration, but seems not to have completed course work there. He received an M.A. from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1934 and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1936. It appears based on his later professorship that his Ph.D. was in botany.

Early achievement

At the age of 21, in 1928, Lundell was a

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educati ...

(SMU). He was appointed assistant physiologist at the Tropical Plant Research Foundation in Washington, D.C. He was to assist in British Honduras, with experiments on the sapodilla tree (''Achras zapota''), which yields

chicle Chicle () is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the genus ''Manilkara'', including '' M. zapota'', '' M. chicle'', '' M. staminodella'', and ...

, for the U.S. chewing gum industry.

Chicle

Chicle Chicle () is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the genus ''Manilkara'', including '' M. zapota'', '' M. chicle'', '' M. staminodella'', and ...

is the natural gum from trees of the genus ''

Manilkara ''Manilkara'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and in the Caribbea ...

'', tropical evergreen trees native to southern North America and South America. It was traditionally used in chewing gum. While the Wrigley Company was a prominent user of this material, today there are only a few companies that still make chewing gum from natural chicle.

Work

Lundell's work was a combination of conservation and economics. He was interested in the

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a popu ...

culture and archaeology as well as botany. While working for the Tropical Plant Research Foundation in 1931, he discovered the Maya city of Calakmul, which had been hidden in the jungle for 1,000 years. He discovered and identified more than 2,000 plants, many of them Texas natives.

Burial

Cyrus Longworth Lundell is buried at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Legacy

Lundell is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, '' Sceloporus lundelli''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Lundell", p. 163).

References

20th-century American botanists Plant physiologists 1907 births 1991 deaths Burials at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery Calakmul American expatriates in Belize {{US-botanist-stub