Biography

Italian-Brazilian botanist and ethnographer. Adolpho Ducke was one of the foremost authorities of the Amazonian flora and of the tree systems of the rainforest in the first half of the twentieth century. Little is known about his early life and education in Europe other than that he was born in Trieste in 1876. He first collected in the Amazon as an entomologist for the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Belém and only later became a botanist through the persuasion of Jacques Huber and Paul LeCointe, who sparked his interest in the Amazonian tree flora. He often collaborated with botanists from other institutions such as the Jardim Botânico in Rio de Janeiro and the Instituto Agronômico do Norte in Belém, and was a mentor to some of them.

Over the years he became increasingly concerned about the future of the rainforest and in 1954 proposed the idea of a nature reserve to the Institute of Amazonian Research. Four years after his death, the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke was established and named in his honour. In an opinion piece published in Taxon in 1955, Ducke unfavourably compared "herbarium" botanists with "field" botanists. For many years he argued with the Brazilian Forest Service, which expected him to conduct his work from the herbarium in Rio de Janeiro, that Amazonian plants could not be studied properly from a distance. Ducke called them "bureaucrats" and in 1943 severed his official connection and started a commercial enterprise from his home in Manaós, where there is now a botanical garden named for him. After 1952 he was aided by grants from the Brazilian National Council of Research and towards the end of his life moved to Fortazela for its milder climate.

Ducke published 133 papers, mainly on the Leguminosae, and described 762 new species and 45 new genera. Before 1937 his herbarium specimens were issued under numbers of the Jardim Botânico. he then started a new series for private distribution, the first collection beginning with No. 1. Those marked "II Col" are second specimens collected, as was his habit, when Ducke revisited the original type trees or localities at a later date. He is usually cited on specimens as 'Adolpho Ducke' or 'A. Ducke'. Chimarrhis duckeana Delprete and Ophiocaryon duckei Barneby are named after him.

Sources:
W.A. Archer, 1962, "Adolpho Ducke, Botanist of the Brazilian Amazon (1876-1959)", Taxon, 11(8): 233-242.

Biography

Italian-Brazilian botanist and ethnographer. Adolpho Ducke was one of the foremost authorities of the Amazonian flora and of the tree systems of the rainforest in the first half of the twentieth century. Little is known about his early life and education in Europe other than that he was born in Trieste in 1876. He first collected in the Amazon as an entomologist for the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Belém and only later became a botanist through the persuasion of Jacques Huber and Paul LeCointe, who sparked his interest in the Amazonian tree flora. He often collaborated with botanists from other institutions such as the Jardim Botânico in Rio de Janeiro and the Instituto Agronômico do Norte in Belém, and was a mentor to some of them.

Over the years he became increasingly concerned about the future of the rainforest and in 1954 proposed the idea of a nature reserve to the Institute of Amazonian Research. Four years after his death, the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke was established and named in his honour. In an opinion piece published in Taxon in 1955, Ducke unfavourably compared "herbarium" botanists with "field" botanists. For many years he argued with the Brazilian Forest Service, which expected him to conduct his work from the herbarium in Rio de Janeiro, that Amazonian plants could not be studied properly from a distance. Ducke called them "bureaucrats" and in 1943 severed his official connection and started a commercial enterprise from his home in Manaós, where there is now a botanical garden named for him. After 1952 he was aided by grants from the Brazilian National Council of Research and towards the end of his life moved to Fortazela for its milder climate.

Ducke published 133 papers, mainly on the Leguminosae, and described 762 new species and 45 new genera. Before 1937 his herbarium specimens were issued under numbers of the Jardim Botânico. he then started a new series for private distribution, the first collection beginning with No. 1. Those marked "II Col" are second specimens collected, as was his habit, when Ducke revisited the original type trees or localities at a later date. He is usually cited on specimens as 'Adolpho Ducke' or 'A. Ducke'. Chimarrhis duckeana Delprete and Ophiocaryon duckei Barneby are named after him.

Sources:
W.A. Archer, 1962, "Adolpho Ducke, Botanist of the Brazilian Amazon (1876-1959)", Taxon, 11(8): 233-242.