Burger, William Carl (1932-)

Herbarium
Natural History Museum (BM)
Collection
Plant Collectors
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Contributor
Natural History Museum (BM)
First name(s)
William Carl
Last name
Burger
Initials
W.C.
Life Dates
1932 -
Collecting Dates
1963 - 1990
Specification
Plant collector
Groups collected
Spermatophytes
Organisation(s)
F (main), ACD, BM, CR, DUKE, ETH, K, LL (currently TEX), MEXU, MO, NY, P, PMA, TEX, US
Countries
Tropical South America: ColombiaCentral American Continent: Costa Rica, Mexico, PanamaTropical Africa: EthiopiaNorth American region: United States
Associate(s)
Amare Getahun (fl. 1961-2006) (co-collector)
Baker, Richard A. (Dick) (fl. 1975-1984) (co-author, co-collector)
Barringer, Kerry A. (1954-) (co-collector)
Burger, Melinda (fl. 1971) (co-collector)
Gentry, Alwyn Howard (Al) (1945-1993) (co-collector)
Gentry, Johnnie Lee (1939-) (co-collector)
Gómez-Laurito, Jorge (1959-) (co-collector)
Jimenez (fl. 1988) (co-collector)
Lent, Roy William (fl. 1972) (co-collector)
Liesner, Ronald L. (1944-) (co-collector)
Matta U., Guillermo (fl. 1967) (co-collector)
Molina, Albertina R. (fl. 1971-1973) (co-collector)
Molina Rositto, Antonio (1926-) (co-collector)
Poveda Álvarez, Luis Jorge (fl. 1978-2006) (co-collector)
Ramirez, B. (fl. 1966) (co-collector)
Sanchez (co-collector)
Stolze, Robert G. (1927-) (co-collector)
Swagel, Kevin (fl. 1986-1988) (co-collector)
Visconti, G. (fl. 1977) (co-collector)
Wallenta, Bruce (fl. 1966) (co-collector)
Williams, Louis Otho (Otto) (1908-1991) (co-collector)
Biography
American botanist, Curator Emeritus of Vascular Plants at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. Burger has dedicated most of his career to studying the flowering plants of Costa Rica, having begun work on the Flora Costaricensis in the 1960s. Burger received his BA from Columbia University in 1953 and went on to take his master's degree at Cornell (1958) and his PhD at Washington University in St. Louis (1961). He was then given an appointment at the Field Museum, where he was chair of the botany department from 1978 to 1985. His research has focused on both speciation in Costa Rican flowering plants and early evolution of angiosperms and their diversification. The publication of Flora Costaricensis began in 1971 under his direction. Burger has also written popular books on the evolution of angiosperms and other life, including How Flowers Changed the World (2006) and Perfect Planet, Clever Species (2002).

Sources:
Field Museum Staff, William Carl Burger:
http://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=burger.
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 94; Holmgren, P., Holmgren, N.H. & Barnett, L.C., Index Herb., ed. 8 (1990): 370; Knobloch, I.W., Phytologia Mem. 6 (1983): 12;
Burger, William Carl (1932-)
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