Paul Fryxell

Paul Fryxell
Paul Fryxell
Born	February 2, 1927; Moline, Illinois
Died	July 11, 2011; Claremont, California

Paul Arnold Fryxell was an American botanist known for his work on flowering plants, especially those within the Malvaceae.^[1]

Education and career

Fryxell attended Moline public schools and later Augustana College, graduating with a B.A. in 1949,^[2] and Iowa State University (M.S., 1951, Ph.D., 1955^[3]). After employment with the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station (1952–1955) and the Wichita State University (Asst. Professor of Botany, 1955–1957), he joined the Agricultural Research Service, USDA, with which agency he spent most of his career as a Research Botanist, located on the Texas A&M University campus. He retired from this position in 1994 and became adjunct professor in Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. He was also an Honorary Curator at the New York Botanical Garden.^[2]

Research

His research interests have centered on the taxonomy of the Neotropical Malvaceae, including work on the evolution, biodiversity, and taxonomy of Gossypium, the genus that includes the world's cotton crop. He served as president of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (1983–1984)^{[citation needed]} and of the Society for Economic Botany (1988–1989),^[4] and held a Fulbright Scholar Award for study in Argentina (1993).^[5] In 1961 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.^[6] He was also a fellow of the Texas Academy of Science and a member of the Commission of Flora Neotropica.^{[citation needed]}

He was a contributor of treatments of the Malvaceae to numerous Neotropical floristic works and conducted fieldwork in the neotropics, primarily in Mexico but also in parts of Central and South America, as well as in tropical Australia.^{[citation needed]}

In 1974, he was honoured by botanist David Martin Bates, (1934-2019), who named a monotypic genus of plants after him,^[7] Fryxellia (belonging to the family Malvaceae), comes from Mexico and Texas.^[8]

Personal life

His wife Greta (Albrecht) Fryxell was an oceanographer known for her research on diatoms.^[9]

Selected publications

Fryxell, Paul A. (1979). The natural history of the cotton tribe (Malvaceae, tribe Gossypieae) (1st ed.). College Station: Texas A & M University Press. ISBN 0-89096-071-2. OCLC 5126570.
Fryxell, Paul A. (1988). Malvaceae of Mexico. [Ann Arbor, Mich.?]: American Society of Plant Taxonomists. ISBN 0-912861-25-8. OCLC 19036251.
Fryxell, Paul A. (1997). "The American Genera of Malvaceae-II". Brittonia. 49 (2): 204–269. Bibcode:1997Britt..49..204F. doi:10.2307/2807683. JSTOR 2807683. S2CID 45480529.
Fryxell, Paul A. (1999). Pavonia Cavanilles (Malvaceae). Organization for Flora Neotropica, New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, N.Y.: Published for the Organization for Flora Neotropica by the New York Botanical Garden Press. ISBN 0-89327-424-0. OCLC 41646379.

The standard author abbreviation Fryxell is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[10]

References

^ Paul Arnold Fryxell (1927-2011) Archived 2011-09-21 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b "Person Details - The William & Lynda Steere Herbarium". sweetgum.nybg.org. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
^ Fryxell, Paul A (1955). A genetic analysis of yield in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) ... (Thesis). OCLC 19613733.
^ "The Society for Economic Botany". econbot.org. Retrieved 2021-11-01.
^ "Paul Fryxell | Fulbright Scholar Program". cies.org. Retrieved 2021-10-31.
^ "Historic Fellows | American Association for the Advancement of Science". www.aaas.org. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
^ Quattrocchi, Umberto (2000). CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume II, D–L. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-2676-9.
^ "Fryxellia D.M.Bates | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
^ Medlin, Linda K. (2018-01-02). "Obituary – Greta A. Fryxell". Diatom Research. 33 (1): 123–133. Bibcode:2018DiaRe..33..123M. doi:10.1080/0269249X.2017.1419988. ISSN 0269-249X. S2CID 90844546.
^ International Plant Names Index. Fryxell.