Biography

American tropical botanist at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Florida. Holst's work has focused on the inventory and classification of neotropical flora, especially epiphytes, hence he has made numerous field trips to Central and South America. He is especially interested in Guayana Shield Bromeliaceae and neotropical Myrtaceae, though he collects material from all families.

Born in Oakland, California, Bruce Holst developed a keen interest in plants while growing up in nearby Walnut Creek. As a teenager he took a summer and weekend job at a plant nursery, while continuing to learn about native plants of the state's coast, mountain and desert habitats. He went on to study plant sciences, especially plant pathology, at the University of California at Davis before joining the Peace Corps. Stationed in Honduras from 1981-1984, Holst taught his favourite subjects to agriculture extension agents and began to conduct a survey of the local flora. To house his collections, Holst and his co-workers established a small herbarium and continued to undertake a broader survey of all the native plants in the region. After leaving the Peace Corps with a now strong interest in tropical plants, Holst was recruited by the Missouri Botanical Garden, where he worked for a decade almost exclusively on the Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, an ambitious project that would turn out to last 20 years. In the late 1980s this entailed a series of expeditions by helicopter to the so-called 'Lost World' of Venezuela, inventorying areas up to then never or only poorly sampled. In 1987 Holst was among those making the exciting landing on the last major tepui (sandstone mesa) to ever be visited by humans, Aparaman-tepui.

He next joined the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (as herbarium manager, 1994-2000), where he continued to work on the nine-volume Flora (as co-editor) and also took on editorships of the Journal of the Bromeliad Society (2002-2005) and Selbyana (1998-2003). He is currently Director of Plant Collections and Selby Botanical Gardens Press. Since the early 1990s Holst has also participated in a number of expeditions to a range of localities including to Belize (1992), Bolivia (1995), Peru (1998) and Venezuela (2008) for the Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program. As well as his international travel, Holst has been involved in extensive botanical inventories of Sarasota County, Florida, in recent years. There are about ten taxa named after him, including the genus Holstianthus barbigularis Steyerm. (Rubiaceae).

Sources:
Personal communication, October 2009.

Biography

American tropical botanist at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Florida. Holst's work has focused on the inventory and classification of neotropical flora, especially epiphytes, hence he has made numerous field trips to Central and South America. He is especially interested in Guayana Shield Bromeliaceae and neotropical Myrtaceae, though he collects material from all families.

Born in Oakland, California, Bruce Holst developed a keen interest in plants while growing up in nearby Walnut Creek. As a teenager he took a summer and weekend job at a plant nursery, while continuing to learn about native plants of the state's coast, mountain and desert habitats. He went on to study plant sciences, especially plant pathology, at the University of California at Davis before joining the Peace Corps. Stationed in Honduras from 1981-1984, Holst taught his favourite subjects to agriculture extension agents and began to conduct a survey of the local flora. To house his collections, Holst and his co-workers established a small herbarium and continued to undertake a broader survey of all the native plants in the region. After leaving the Peace Corps with a now strong interest in tropical plants, Holst was recruited by the Missouri Botanical Garden, where he worked for a decade almost exclusively on the Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, an ambitious project that would turn out to last 20 years. In the late 1980s this entailed a series of expeditions by helicopter to the so-called 'Lost World' of Venezuela, inventorying areas up to then never or only poorly sampled. In 1987 Holst was among those making the exciting landing on the last major tepui (sandstone mesa) to ever be visited by humans, Aparaman-tepui.

He next joined the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (as herbarium manager, 1994-2000), where he continued to work on the nine-volume Flora (as co-editor) and also took on editorships of the Journal of the Bromeliad Society (2002-2005) and Selbyana (1998-2003). He is currently Director of Plant Collections and Selby Botanical Gardens Press. Since the early 1990s Holst has also participated in a number of expeditions to a range of localities including to Belize (1992), Bolivia (1995), Peru (1998) and Venezuela (2008) for the Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program. As well as his international travel, Holst has been involved in extensive botanical inventories of Sarasota County, Florida, in recent years. There are about ten taxa named after him, including the genus Holstianthus barbigularis Steyerm. (Rubiaceae).

Sources:
Personal communication, October 2009.

Biography

American tropical botanist at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Florida. Holst's work has focused on the inventory and classification of neotropical flora, especially epiphytes, hence he has made numerous field trips to Central and South America. He is especially interested in Guayana Shield Bromeliaceae and neotropical Myrtaceae, though he collects material from all families.

Born in Oakland, California, Bruce Holst developed a keen interest in plants while growing up in nearby Walnut Creek. As a teenager he took a summer and weekend job at a plant nursery, while continuing to learn about native plants of the state's coast, mountain and desert habitats. He went on to study plant sciences, especially plant pathology, at the University of California at Davis before joining the Peace Corps. Stationed in Honduras from 1981-1984, Holst taught his favourite subjects to agriculture extension agents and began to conduct a survey of the local flora. To house his collections, Holst and his co-workers established a small herbarium and continued to undertake a broader survey of all the native plants in the region. After leaving the Peace Corps with a now strong interest in tropical plants, Holst was recruited by the Missouri Botanical Garden, where he worked for a decade almost exclusively on the Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, an ambitious project that would turn out to last 20 years. In the late 1980s this entailed a series of expeditions by helicopter to the so-called 'Lost World' of Venezuela, inventorying areas up to then never or only poorly sampled. In 1987 Holst was among those making the exciting landing on the last major tepui (sandstone mesa) to ever be visited by humans, Aparaman-tepui.

He next joined the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (as herbarium manager, 1994-2000), where he continued to work on the nine-volume Flora (as co-editor) and also took on editorships of the Journal of the Bromeliad Society (2002-2005) and Selbyana (1998-2003). He is currently Director of Plant Collections and Selby Botanical Gardens Press. Since the early 1990s Holst has also participated in a number of expeditions to a range of localities including to Belize (1992), Bolivia (1995), Peru (1998) and Venezuela (2008) for the Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program. As well as his international travel, Holst has been involved in extensive botanical inventories of Sarasota County, Florida, in recent years. There are about ten taxa named after him, including the genus Holstianthus barbigularis Steyerm. (Rubiaceae).

Sources:
Personal communication, October 2009.