Pieter van Royen (1923-2002) was a Dutch botanist. He is an author of many papers on the flora of New Guinea.

Life

Pieter van Royen was born in

Lahat The LAHAT (laser homing attack or laser homing anti-tank, also a Hebrew word for ''incandescence'') is a third generation semi-active laser homing low-weight anti-tank guided missile developed since 1991 and manufactured by Israel Aerospace In ...

South Sumatra South Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the southeast of the island of Sumatra. The capital and largest city of the province is the city of Palembang. The province borders the provinces of Jambi to the north ...

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 ...

. In 1933, he moved with his family from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands. He obtained his doctorate at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, a ...

in 1951 with the first volume of a monograph on the

Podostemaceae Podostemaceae (riverweed family), a family in the order Malpighiales, comprise about 50 genera and species of more or less thalloid aquatic herbs. Distribution and habitat They are found mostly in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide ...

of the Neotropics, the second and third volumes of which he presented in 1953 and 1954, respectively. From 1951 to 1962, he worked at the Rijksherbarium in

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, from 1954 to 1955 he undertook his first botanical exploration in

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 ...

. From 1962 to 1965, he was employed at the Lae Botanical Garden there and from 1964 to 1965 at the

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in Brisbane, Australia. In May 1967, he became a curator at the BP Bishop Museum Herbarium in Honolulu, Hawaii; he held this position until his retirement in 1983. During this time he devoted himself continuously to further research into the flora of New Guinea. With his work, Van Royen has significantly enhanced knowledge of the New Guinea flora. His monograph on the Podostemonaceae is a fundamental standard work up to the present day; the American botanist C. Thomas Philbrick wrote about it: “Much of our current knowledge of the taxonomy of the New World Podostemaceae is based in large part on the work of Dr. P. van Royen."

Honors

The genus '' Van-royena'' from the family of

Sapotaceae 240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India The Sapotaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology)">order Ericales">family (biology)">family of flowering plants belonging to th ...

was named in 1964 by van Royen. The generic name ''Vanroyenella'' from the

family also honored P. van Royen. It is now classed as a synonym of '' Marathrum''

Works (selection)

*The Podostemaceae of the New World, Vol. I, in: Meded. Bot. Mus. Herb. Rijks Univ. Utrecht, 107: 1–151, 1951 *The Podostemaceae of the New World, Vol. II, in: Acta Bot. Neerl. 2 (1): 1-21, 1953 *The Podostemaceae of the New World, Vol. III, in: Acta Bot. Neerl. 3: 215–263,1954 *The genus Rubus osaceaein New Guinea, Vaduz, Cramer, 1969 *P. van Royen & PR Reitz, Podostemáceas, in: PR Reitz. (Ed.). Flora Illustrada Catarinense, 1a (5): 2-36, 1971 *Sertulum Papuanum 17. Corsiaceae of New Guinea and surrounding areas, in: Webbia 27: pp. 223–255, 1972 *The alpine flora of New Guinea, Vaduz, 1979, *Genus Corybas (Orchidaceae in Its Eastern Areas), 1984,

References

Lotte Burkhardt: ''Verzeichnis eponymischer Pflanzennamen – Erweiterte Edition.'' Teil I und II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin,

Freie Universität Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948 with American support during the early Cold War period a ...

, Berlin 2018, doi:10.3372/epolist2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Royen, Pieter van 1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Dutch botanists Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies Dutch expatriates Expatriates in Papua New Guinea Dutch expatriates in the United States Dutch expatriates in Australia