Johannes Jacobus Smith (

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

29 June 1867 –

Oegstgeest Oegstgeest () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was in . Etymology The portion ''geest'' in the name refers to the Geest, geest lands, which were excavated in the seventeent ...

14 January 1947) (sometimes written as Joannes Jacobus Smith) was a Dutch

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 ...

who, between years 1905 to 1924, crossed the islands of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(mainly

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

), collecting specimens of plants and describing and cataloguing the flora of these islands. The standard botanical author abbreviation J.J.Sm. is applied to plants described by J.J. Smith. The description of the flowers of the western half of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

(then a Dutch territory) is largely based on his work. He was, next to

Rudolf Schlechter Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids. He went on botanical expeditions in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea, South and Central America an ...

, the most prolific author on New Guinea

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s. He also described numerous plants from other families, such as

Ericaceae The Ericaceae () are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread acros ...

and

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

Biography

Smith was born in Antwerp where his father worked in the postal department. The family moved to Utrecht in 1872 and to Amsterdam in 1875. He took an interest in growing plants and keeping animals. One of his secondary school teachers was Jan Costerus who advised him to study horticulture. Smith then went to learn at the company of Messrs Groenewegen & Co., Amsterdam, where he took a special interest in orchids. Smith moved to Dutch Java in 1891 and became assistant curator at the Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens (near Batavia), now

Bogor Bogor City (), or Bogor (, ), is a landlocked city in the West Java, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.

. He made several expeditions in Java, Celebes (now Sulawesi), the Ambon Islands and the Moluccas. He continued to collaborate with Costerus on plant mutations and variations. In 1905 he was promoted to assistant of the herbarium. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. degree at the

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

in 1910. Finally, he was appointed the director of the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg from 1913 till his retirement in 1924. He then returned to Holland, settled in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

and later in Oegstgeest, near

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. He continued describing orchids till shortly before his death in 1947, such as naming the Sumatran orchid '' Dendrochilum atjehense'' J.J.Sm. 1943.

Botanical accomplishments

J.J.Smith studied and described hundreds of orchid species, amongst others : *'' Aerides reversa'' J.J.Sm. (1912) *'' Bulbophyllum borneense'' (Schltr.) J.J.Sm. (1912) *'' Bulbophyllum brunendijkii'' J.J.Sm. (1906) *''

Bulbophyllum echinolabium ''Bulbophyllum echinolabium'' (hedgehog-shaped lip bulbophyllum) is a species of orchid. References

Bulbophyllum sect. Lepidorhiza, echinolabium {{BulbophyllumAsiaPacificClade-stub ...

'' J.J.Sm. (1934) *'' Calanthe veratrifolia var. dupliciloba'' J.J.Sm. (1922) *'' Calanthe veratrifolia var. lancipetala'' J.J.Sm. (1930) *'' Cirrhopetalum biflorum'' (Teijsm. & Binn.) J.J.Sm. (1903) *'' Coelogyne salmonicolor var. virescentibus'' J.J.Sm. ex Dakkus (1935) *'' Dendrobium acaciifolium'' J.J.Sm. (1917) *'' Dendrobium acanthophippiiflorum'' J.J.Sm. (1915) *'' Dendrobium agathodaemonis'' J.J.Sm. (1910) *'' Dendrobium asperifolium'' J.J.Sm. (1911) *'' Dendrobium atromarginatum'' J.J.Sm. (1929) *'' Dendrobium capitellatum'' J.J.Sm. (1906) *'' Dendrobium carstensziense'' J.J.Sm. (1929) *'' Dendrobium confusum'' J.J.Sm. (1911) *'' Dendrobium ephemerum'' J.J.Sm. (1917) *'' Dendrobium halmaheirense'' J.J.Sm. *'' Dendrobium lichenicola'' J.J.Sm. (1929) *'' Dendrobium papilioniferum'' J.J.Sm. (1905) *'' Dendrobium papilioniferum var. ephemerum'' J.J.Sm. (1905) *'' Dendrobium quadrialatum'' J.J.Sm. (1922) *'' Paphiopedilum glaucophyllum'' J.J.Smith (1905) *'' Phalaenopsis amboinensis'' J.J.Sm. (1911) *'' Phalaenopsis denevei'' J.J.Sm. (1925) *'' Phalaenopsis fimbriata'' J.J.Sm. (1921) *'' Phalaenopsis fimbriata var. sumatrana'' J.J.Sm. (1932) *'' Phalaenopsis pulcherrima'' J.J.Sm. (1933) *67 ''

Dendrochilum __NOTOC__ ''Dendrochilum'' (commonly abbreviated ''Ddc.'' in horticulture) was a genus of epiphytic, lithophytic and a few terrestrial flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It is now considered to be a synonym of '' Coelogyne ...

'' species *and many more He named several orchid genera: *'' Abdominea'' J.J. Sm.1914. *'' Ascocentrum'' Schlechter ex- J.J. Sm. 1914.

Selected publications

He was the author of many taxonomic papers. *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. : ‘Orchidaceae van Ambon. - Batavia, 1905. (in Dutch) *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. Aanteekeningen over orchideeën. - .l. 1920. - 5 dl. (''in Dutch'') *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. : The Orchidaceae of Dr. W. Kaudern's expedition to Selebes. - .l. 1926 *Smith, Joannes Jacobus. : Enumeration of the Orchidaceae of Sumatra and neighbouring islands. - Dahlem bei Berlin, 1933. *Smith, J.J. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Saprophyten Javas. XII-XIV: Burmannia tuberosa Becc. Leiden.. 102-138 pp. 16 lithogr. plts. *Koorders, S.H. & J.J.Smith. Ericacea - Gentianaceae - Corsiaceae - Polugalaceae. Leiden, 1912. 14 pp. 46 lithogr. plts. *Koorders, Sijfert Hendrik, Theodoric Valeton & Johannes Jacobus Smith: Bijdrage no. 1 13tot de kennis der boomsoorten op Java. Additamenta ad cognitionem Florae javanicae … Batavia & ‘s Gravenhage, G. Kolff, 1894–1914, 13 volumes (J.J.Smith is the sole author of volume 12 and of volume 13 in collaboration with Theodoric Valeton) *J.J. Smith et al. - 's Lands Plantentuin Buitenzorg. Gedenkschrift ter gelegenheid van het honderdjarig bestaan op 18 mei 1917. Eerste gedeelte. (Buitenzorg, 1917) (''in Dutch'') *J.J. Smith - Geïllustreerde gids voor 's Lands Plantentuin Buitenzorg pp 60 pb Buitenzorg, zj ±1925 (''in Dutch'')

Reference works

*Blumea, Suppl. 1, SMITH vol., 1937, with dedications, photographs, etc
Naturalis
*D. F. van Slooten: ''Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg'' sér. 3, vol. 14, 1937, p. 99–114, incl. bibliogr. & portr
Internet Archive
*Wie is dat? ed. 3-4; Orchideeën, June 1942, 6 pp (''in Dutch'') *Bull. Bot. Gard. Buitenzorg III, 17, 1948, p. 381-382 *Orchideeën, March 1949, p. 23-31 + portr. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Johannes Jacobus 1867 births 1947 deaths 19th-century Dutch botanists 20th-century Dutch botanists Scientists from Antwerp Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies