Lloyd Herbert Shinners (September 22, 1918 – February 16, 1971) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

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 ...

and professor who had expertise in the flora of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

Early life

Shinners was born in Bluesky, Alberta on September 22, 1918. His family moved to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

when he was five, and he went on to graduate valedictorian from Lincoln High School. He continued his education at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, where he earned a Ph.D. under

Norman Carter Fassett Norman Carter Fassett (March 27, 1900 – September 14, 1954) was an American botanist and professor, known as an expert on the aquatic flora of Wisconsin. Career Fassett was born in Ware, Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard University, eventua ...

in 1943. He worked for the city of Milwaukee before moving to

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

in 1945.

Career

Shinners worked for the

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

as a research assistant, before being placed in charge of the university's herbarium. In 1960, he attained a full professorship. Through his guidance, the herbarium grew from 20,000 specimens to over 340,000. He was specifically interested in the

Compositae Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fa ...

Publications

Shinners authored 274 articles, and published a comprehensive 514 page

Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

of north-central Texas.

Eponyms

Shinners was the namesake of one genus, '' Shinnersia'', and more than 15 species, including: *'' Thelypodiopsis shinnersii'' (M.C.Johnst.) Rollins *'' Ipomoea shinnersii'' D.F.Austin *'' Carex shinnersii'' P.Rothr. & Reznicek''Novon'' 11 (2): 225. 2001 (IK)

Legacy

Shinner's library of botanical books and collection of plant specimens formed the initial collections of the

Botanical Research Institute of Texas The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is a botanical research institute located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1987 for the herbarium and botanical library collections of Lloyd H. Shinners from Southern Met ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

when it was founded in 1987.

Early life

Career

Publications

Eponyms

Legacy

References

Further reading