Te-tsun Yu (1908–1986) was a Chinese botanist who specialised in

spermatophytes A seed plant or spermatophyte (; New Latin ''spermat-'' and Greek ' (phytón), plant), also known as a phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or a phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte (i.e. la ...

, particularly in the

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

and

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

provinces of China.

Education

Yu majored in botany at

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU) () is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education of China, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the B ...

. He was a student of

Hu Xiansu Hu Xiansu or Hu Hsen-Hsu (, 24 May 1894 – 16 July 1968), courtesy name Buzeng (), was a Chinese botanist, scholar, literary critic and educator. He was the founder of plant taxonomy in China and a pioneer of modern botany and paleobotany re ...

Career

Yu was a co-founder of the

Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming Institute of Botany, or KIB (), founded in 1938, is a research institution in the field of Botany, which is located in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, China. The Institute is one of the major herbariums in China and maintains a co ...

. He worked as editor of the

Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae ''Flora of China'' is a scientific publication aimed at describing the plants native to China. It is the English-language revision of ''Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae'' (FRPS, ). The project is a collaborative scientific effort to publi ...

and director of the Institute of Botany at the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

. He was a prolific collector of plant specimens in Yunnan, making expeditions into the largely unexplored mountains in the north west of the province. Thousands of specimens he collected were exported to

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum is a botanical research institution and free public park affiliated with Harvard University and located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, Massachusetts, Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston. Established in 1872, it is the ...

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

who funded the expeditions in 1937. In 1979 he toured the United States as part of a delegation from the Botanical Society of the People's Republic of China in reciprocal arrangements with the Botanical Society of America. This collaboration led to the Flora of China Project which started shortly after Yu's death and was first published in 1994. He compiled "The Botanical Gardens of China" (Published: 1983 by Science Press, Beijing, ) which contains many colour photographs and maps of each botanical garden.

References

External links

* http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/index.html Flora of China Project 20th-century Chinese botanists Chinese gardeners Chinese taxonomists Beijing Normal University alumni 1908 births 1986 deaths Biologists from Beijing Members of the Jiusan Society {{botanist-stub