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Systematics Section / ASPT

Macklin, James A. [1].

The influence of W.W. Ashe on Crataegus (Hawthorn) taxonomy.

William Willard Ashe (1872-1932) was a prominent describer of new Crataegus species at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ashe was educated and worked as a forester in North Carolina but also enjoyed botany as a hobby. He described 510 new taxa in all, mostly trees, of which 177 were Crataegus. Included in the 177 species of hawthorn described by Ashe are some of the most abundant and important species on the continent, e.g. C. chrysocarpa Ashe, C. coccinioides Ashe, C. pulcherrima Ashe, C. macrosperma Ashe, C. holmesiana Ashe and C. margaretta Ashe. However, most of Ashe’s names, where they are clearly understood, nowadays are synonyms or minor variants of the main species. A major problem of interpreting Ashe names derives from his practice of not citing type material, not infrequently coupled with somewhat defective (even for the period) descriptions. Copious correspondence between Ashe and other prominent amateur and professional botanists of the time depicts a man more interested in understanding plants and their variability he witnessed in nature than in the rigors of the emerging science of systematics. The Ashe herbarium is housed at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.


1 - Academy of Natural Sciences, Botany, 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19103, USA

Keywords:
Crataegus
Rosaceae
Ashe
Hawthorn
Typification.

Presentation Type: Paper
Session: 38-1
Location: Cottonwood A (Snowbird Center)
Date: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004
Time: 2:00 PM
Abstract ID:442


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