Biography

American botanist at the Smithsonian Institution. Killip was a specialist on South American phanerogams and collected extensively in Colombia. He also rediscovered and organised the collections of Jose Celestino Mutis at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Madrid. Killip, known to all as Buddy, was born in Rochester, upstate New York. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1911, going on to work at the Rochester Academy of Science as an associate curator until entering military service in 1918, for which he was distinguished with the Chevalier of the French Legion of Merit. In 1919 he moved to Washington D.C. to start work at the Smithsonian Institution, where he was eventually promoted to head curator of the U.S. National Herbarium in 1946, succeeding W.R. Maxon. He served for four years before retiring, during which time the Division of Plants was raised in status to the Department of Botany. From 1951-1965 he continued his research as an associate at the museum.

In his research, Killip specialised in the genus Bomarea Mirb. (Amaryllidaceae) and the Fabaceae and Passifloraceae families, producing an authoritative work on the latter, The American species of Passifloraceae (1938). At his death he also left unpublished manuscripts on the genera Cordia L. and Tournefortia L., indicating that Boraginaceae were another of his particular interests. An avid plant collector, Killip carried out fieldwork across the U.S. and South America. His efforts were especially focussed on Florida in the 1930s and 1950s, and in Colombia. He also collected in Argentina, Brazil (1929), Chile, Cuba (1931, 1937), Jamaica (1916, 1920), Panama (1917-1918), 1948), Peru (1929) and Venezuela (1943), often in conjunction with other eminent botanists.

Alongside his many collections and publications, one of Killip's greatest achievements was completing the enormous task of re-organising the collections of Jose Mutis' Royal Botanical Expedition to Nuevo Grenada. Mutis' monumental voyage in the late 18th century resulted in a collection of thousands of illustrations and plant specimens that was left all but forgotten at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Madrid until Killip came along in 1929 and led a resurgence of interest in the historic expedition. The governments of Spain and Colombia later joined forces (after the end of the distracting Spanish Civil War and World War Two) to publish the botanical descriptions and illustrations from the expedition. The first of these works was published in 1953 and although more than 20 more volumes have since appeared, they still represent perhaps only a fifth of Mutis' and Caldas' total work.

Killip was a corresponding member of the Venezuela Natural Science Society and had been involved with the Washington Biologists' Field Club since 1922. He died in Redlands, California, in 1968. Around 150 plant taxa are named after Killip including Killipia Gleason and Killipiodendron Kobuski.

Sources:
A. Fernández-Perez, 1969, "Ellsworth P. Killip", Caldasia, 10: 243-245
E.P. Killip, 1917, "Ferns of Jamaica", American Fern Journal, 7(2): 36-50
E.P. Killip, 1919, "Fern-Hunting in Panama", American Fern Journal, 9(1): 5-17
E.P. Killip, 1938, The American species of Passifloraceae
Perry M.C, E.J.R. Lohnes, A. M. Wells, P. C. Osenton, and D. M. Kidwell. 2004, Atlantic Seaduck Project, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD:
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/bios/KillipEllsworth.htm, accessed 5 October 2009
J.W. Nowicke, 1974, "Three New Species of Tournefortia (Boraginaceae) from the Andes and Comments on the Manuscripts of E.P. Killip", Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 101(5): 229
Passiflora Online, Passiflora Ellsworth Paine Killip:
http://www.passionflow.co.uk/tl1.htm, accessed 5 October 2009
Smithsonian Institution, Archives Catalog, Ellsworth Paine Killip Papers:
http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!217531!0, accessed 5 October 2009.