American botanist specialising in the flora of Venezuela, especially the aroids. As a young botanist, Bunting joined Bassett Maguire on an expedition to the Guyana highlands in 1953-1954, along with J.J. Wurdack. At this time his first publication on the Araceae of Venezuela appeared, in Spanish, and in 1960 his PhD dissertation, a revision of the genus Spathiphyllum Schott, was published. He also authored many works on cultivated aroids and Venezuelan regional floristics, and in 1965 published a piece on the Araceae of Mexico.

Bunting had begun his work on the aroids while at Missouri Botanical Garden, but in the 1960s joined Cornell University and in 1968 returning to Venezuela, where he worked at the Institute of Agricultural Botany at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay and at the Maracaibo Botanic Garden (from 1973), where he directed the establishment of the new herbarium and library opened in 1976. He collected plants in 1969 and 1970 with L.M.A. Akkermans, J. van Rooden and J.A. Steyermark, also visiting Colombia. In 1979 Bunting published Sinopsis de las Araceae de Venezuela (A Synopsis of Araceae in Venezuela), based on his extensive field studies and collections in the country. The synopsis forms the basis of Bunting's treatment of Araceae for the Flora of Venezuela. In 1995 he also contributed the Araceae treatment for the Flora of the Venezuelan Guyana. In addition he has also carried out work towards a revision of the genus Philodendron.

Sources:
Anon., 1977, Taxon, 26(5/6): 601
T.B. Croat, 1998, "History and Current Status of Systematic Research with Araceae", Aroideana, 21: 39-40.