Leslie Andrew Garay (August 6, 1924 – August 19, 2016), born Garay László András, was an American botanist. He was the curator of the

Oakes Ames Oakes Ames (January 10, 1804 – May 8, 1873) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. As a congressman, he is credited by many historians as being ...

Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded

Charles Schweinfurth Charles Schweinfurth (April 13, 1890 – November 16, 1970) was an American botanist and plant collector who distinguished himself by his studies on orchids. He predominantly collected species from Peru which he described in his four volume refer ...

in 1958. In 1957 he was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Life and work

Garay was born in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, and after the Second World War he emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States. He was a

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

and collector of

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, particularly interested in the orchids of tropical America and Southeast Asia. His ideas were influential in orchid taxonomy, and he reorganized several genera, including ''

Oncidium ''Oncidium'', abbreviated as Onc. in the horticultural trade, is a genus that, , contains about 340 species of orchids from the subtribe Oncidiinae of the orchid family Orchidaceae. It is distributed across tropical and subtropical America from ...

''. In addition to reclassification of various species into different genera, he defined a number of new genera including ''

Chaubardiella ''Chaubardiella'' is a genus of flowering plants from the Cymbidieae of the orchid family, Orchidaceae, native to Costa Rica and South America. #''Chaubardiella dalessandroi'' Dodson & Dalström - Ecuador #''Chaubardiella delcastilloi'' D.E.Benn ...

'' in 1969 and ''

Amesiella ''Amesiella'' is a genus of orchids Endemism, endemic to the Island of Luzon, in the Philippines. Taxonomy Previously it was believed that the species of this genus belonged to the genus ''Angraecum'' within the subtribe Angraecinae. The ge ...

'' in 1972.

Publications

Among his influential publications were: * ''Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated'',

Galfrid C. K. Dunsterville Galfrid Clement Keyworth "Stalky" Dunsterville (February 18, 1905 – November 26, 1988) was a business executive and a botanist who studied the orchids of Venezuela. He was born in Devon to Lionel Dunsterville (who inspired the title character of ...

& Leslie A. Garay, Andre Deutsch, London & Amsterdam, 1959–76, 334 pp. * ''Natural & artificial hybrid generic names of orchids, 1887–1965'', 1966, Botanical Museum leaflets, Harvard University, 212 pp. * ''Flora of the Lesser Antilles: Orchidaceae '', 1974, Garay, Los Angeles, HR Sweet, Amer Orchid Soc. * ''Orchids of the Southern Ryukyu Islands'', 1974, Leslie A. Garay & Herman R. Sweet, Botanical Museum, Harvard University, 180 pp. * ''Orchidaceae,

Cypripedioideae Cypripedioideae is a subfamily of orchids commonly known as lady's slipper orchids, lady slipper orchids or slipper orchids. Cypripedioideae includes the genera ''Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium'' and '' Selenipedium''. ...

Orchidoideae The Orchidoideae, or the orchidoid orchids, are a subfamily of the orchid family (Orchidaceae) that contains around 3630 species. Species typically have a single (monandrous), fertile anther which is erect and basitonic. Description The subfam ...

, Neottioideae'', vol. 9 of ''Flora of Ecuador'', NFR, 304 pp. * ''Orchids Venezuela'', Galfrid C. K. Dunsterville & Leslie A. Garay, 3 volumes, 1979, Publ. Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts * ''Systematics of the genus Stelis SW'', 1979, Harvard University, Botanical Museum leaflets, 259 pp. * ''Index to the orchid herbarium of Oakes Ames in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University'', 1989, Chadwyck-Healey, 204 pp.

Legacy

The following plants have been named in his honour: ; Genera: * (

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family (biology), family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan plants that ...

) '' Garayanthus'' Szlach. * (Orchidaceae) ''

Garaya Garaya may refer to: * ''Garaya'', genus name, alternative scientific name of the '' Mesadenella'' orchid * Garaya (lute) The garaya or komo is an oval-bodied, two-string spike lute from Niger and Northern Nigeria. Details Two different vers ...

'' Szlach. * (Orchidaceae) '' Lesliea'' Seidenf. ; Species:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garay, Leslie Andrew Orchidologists 1924 births 2016 deaths Arnold Arboretum 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists Harvard University staff Hungarian emigrants to Canada Canadian emigrants to the United States