American botanist and medical doctor. Joseph Joor practised medicine in both Louisiana and Texas, and collected plants in these states as well as Mississippi. Born near Baton Rouge on the Comite River, Louisiana, he moved with his parents to Illinois when he was a young child. Growing up on the prairies he developed an interest in natural history and regularly wandered the region in search of interesting plants. In 1865 his family returned to Baton Rouge and at this time he left school to work in a pharmacy, while at the same time beginning the study of medicine. Moving to New Orleans Joor continued his education at the New Orleans School of Medicine while also working at the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. On graduating in 1870 he was named Assistant Quarantine Surgeon at Ship Island Station but soon entered into private practice in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. At this time his interest in plant collecting grew and he began to gather specimens along the Gulf Coast. It was in 1873 that he moved to Texas and set up his practice first in Harrisburg (Houston) and later in and Birdston (a town which is no longer inhabited). During the 1884-1885 Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans Joor was named Assistant Commissioner for Texas and prepared a botanical exhibit.
From 1886 until his untimely death Joor worked for Tulane University's Museum of Natural History, initially as Associate Curator and from 1891 as Curator. His personal herbarium was particularly rich in specimens from the Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Galveston Bay regions of Louisiana and Harris County and Navarro in Texas, but he had also collected along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in Mexico. The collection was donated to Missouri Botanical Garden and his particular interest in the grasses (Poaceae) is reflected in its content. Although Joor published very little, he did have the desire to create a flora of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas and had even produced such a list, but his then ailing health and a lack of resources meant that this project never came to fruition. The species Panicum joorii Vasey, Carex joorii L.H. Bailey and Barbula jooriana Müller. were named after him as their discoverer.
Sources:
J.B.S. Norton, 1898, "Joseph F. Joor", Botanical Gazette, 26(4): 270-274.
