Biography

American botanist at the Smithsonian Institution known for his work with ferns. Morton was also a specialist on Gesneriaceae and Solanaceae. Conrad Vernon Morton, originally named Walter Vernon Morton, was born in Fresno, California. His father, Walter Crow Morton, died when Conrad was young and his mother married a family friend. Morton became well acquainted with plants while growing up; he was given his own plot in the garden by his mother, who was known locally for growing more than a hundred different varieties of rose. He entered the University of California at Berkeley in 1924, at which time he changed his name to Conrad and first became interested in botany, making his first plant collections near the campus. After graduating in 1928 he taught for a short time at the university before taking up a position at the Smithsonian Institution as a phanerogamic aide (though he was intended for a curatorial post, he did not yet have enough experience). Much of his time was taken up with plant identification, especially of specimens from the western U.S., Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He quickly began to specialise in Gesneriaceae and Solanaceae, which became lifelong interests alongside ferns.

In 1933 Morton travelled to Mexico to make collections in Oaxaca. He contracted malaria on this expedition, but it did not avert him from travelling abroad again a few years later in 1936 and 1941, to collect plants in Cuba. He was promoted to assistant curator at the Smithsonian in 1938 and associate curator in 1946. In the 1930s Morton had begun to work more and more with ferns alongside William Maxon, and in 1948 when the Smithsonian reorganised its Division of Plants into the Department of Botany, Morton was appointed the first curator of ferns. He also took on the role of editor-in-chief of the American Fern Journal in 1948, stepping down in 1961. The drawback of his new position at the herbarium, however, was that he had no time left for his doctoral studies at George Washington University, to which he had been admitted despite having no master's degree. He did find time to head off on travels again, however, making extensive collections on the island of St. Vincent, where he explored a newly discovered valley in the mountainous interior of the island. He also travelled to Honduras in 1951, accompanying L.O. Williams. The ferns he collected were meant to contribute to a fern flora for that country, which remained in manuscript form, as did a similar project Morton had planned for Guatemala.

A great deal of nomenclatural research was necessary for the tropical fern floristics he was working on, to which end he travelled to European herbaria to study type specimens, aided by a Guggenheim fellowship (1954) and National Science Foundation grants (1957 and 1963). He took more than 22,000 photographs of specimens while on these trips. He also travelled to Cuba once more in 1956, though it would transpire that this was his last such field trip for more than 15 years; he suffered the first in a series of heart attacks in 1961 and decided not to make long-haul journeys to collect plants anymore, though in 1970 he did cross the Atlantic again, to represent the Smithsonian at the tercentenary celebrations of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

In his last decade of research Morton devoted himself mostly to ferns until in 1970 he was released from his administrative duties, being appointed senior botanist, and turned once more to the Solanaceae. He was awarded a grant to travel to Argentina in 1972, where he not only carried out herbarium study but also made a comeback in fieldwork. He was working on the Argentine Solanum in Washington when he passed away unexpectedly at home. A revision of the Argentine species of Solanum was posthumously published in 1976. Morton was "a retiring sort, devoted to music and indeed a highly competent pianist," according to Joseph Ewan's 1973 obituary for Morton. Ewan also notes that Morton sought relaxation with philately and in his later years in painting, exhibiting at some local galleries. He is commemorated in the genera Mortoniella Woodson and Mortoniodendron Standl. & Steyerm. and in numerous species names.

Sources:
David B Lellinger, 1973, "Conrad Vernon Morton (1905-1972)", American Fern Journal, 63(3): 49-60
J. Ewan, 1973, "Conrad Vernon Morton, 1905-1972", Taxon, 22(2/3): 271-274.