Rupert C. Barneby, his monumental contributions to the taxonomy of
Astragalus and his place among American botanists, is discussed. His twenty contributions in the series
Pugillus Astragalorum spanned fifteen years of his botanical development from an interested naturalist to an accomplished taxonomist in this extremely
species-rich genus. Barneby’s work on
Astragalus culminated in the 1188 pages of the
Atlas of North American Astragalus, which treated of 552 taxa and was published in 1964.
Key words
Astragalus
- Fabaceae - Barneby