Nationality Brazil Name Amaro Macedo | Died June 27, 2014 | |
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Born 10 May 1914 ( 1914-05-10 ) Campina Verde Occupation collector of the Brazilian Cerrado plant species | ||
Amaro Macedo (10 May 1914 – 27 June 2014) was a Brazilian botanist who was the best-known collector of the Brazilian Cerrado plant species of the 20th century. He lived in Ituiutaba, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He started his collection in 1943 when he was a teacher of Natural Sciences in the Instituto Marden, Ituiutaba. He collected most of his plant material in the cerrado vegetation of the States of Minas Gerais, Goiás, Maranhão and Pará. He collected also in the regions of the villages of Natividade, Porto Nacional and Filadelfia, at the time part of the State of Goiás, although now part of the state of Tocantins. Plant specimens from his collection are in several herbaria in Brazil and outside. Between 1943 and 2007 he collected 6,008 plant specimens, several of them are considered new species and some were dedicated to him by famous Botanists.
Contents
- Biography
- Tributes
- Exchanges with well known botanists
- Plant specimens
- New species collected by Macedo
- New species dedicated to Amaro Macedo
- References
Biography
Macedo, the son of Otavio Macedo, a farmer from the Triângulo Mineiro in the State of Minas Gerais (MG), and Maria da Gloria Chaves Macedo, was married to Celia Duarte Macedo. The couple had four daughters: Regina, Marilia, Beatriz and Maria do Carmo. He was born Campina Verde, Brazil and attended primary school in Ituiutaba and secondary school in Campanha, Minas Gerais. Afterwards he was a student at the Escola Superior de Viçosa, now known as the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (Federal University of Viçosa) - UFV, Minas Gerais, as a technician in agriculture. In 1935 he moved to Ituiutaba, MG, to teach primary school classes at the new Instituto Marden. Soon he was teaching mathematics, sciences and technical design in the secondary classes of the same Institute. He was a teacher of statistics at the Commerce School and was responsible for the administration of the Instituto Marden when his brother-in-law was on leave. At the time he was also responsible for the classes of mathematics and sciences at the Colegio Santa Tereza, a Roman Catholic school run by nuns in Ituiutaba. As a teacher of Natural Sciences he had to teach the scientific names of common plant species; since his pupils were for the most part sons of farmers from the region and they were particularly interested to know the Latin names of the plants that were growing on their farms. He had to study to learn this subject and decided also to have field classes with his students.
He wrote to well-known botanists in Brazil asking for help in how to collect and prepare plant specimens. He collected most of his plant material in the cerrado vegetation of the States of Minas Gerais, Goiás, Maranhão and Pará. He collected also in the regions of the villages of Natividade, Porto Nacional and Filadelfia, at the time part of the State of Goiás, although now part of the state of Tocantins. His first plant specimen was collected on May 3, 1943 in Ituiutaba – Roupala tomentosa Pohl. He travelled all over the cerrado region and wrote diaries of his trips in which he describes the plants, the environment, the villages, the customs of the people, the food, the transport, the rivers and so on. When he retired from teaching, he started a new life as a farmer, but continued collecting plant material. One day collecting material in the farm he was struck by a branch of Bauhinia bongardi Steud. which left him totally blind of his left eye.
Tributes
He has a mention from the British Museum of Natural History for his work with the Brazilian flora. In 1958 he received a medal, Medalha de Mérito Dom João VI, from the Brazilian Government for his services to the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden.
Exchanges with well-known botanists
He learned from and kept an exchange of correspondence with Brazilian botanists, such as Joaquim Franco de Toledo, Oswaldo Handro, Frederico Carlos Hoehne, Graziela Maciel Barroso, Carlos de Toledo Rizzini, Alexandre Curt Brade, Guido Frederico João Pabst, Gil Martins Felippe, and Lúcia Rossi e João Aguiar Nogueira Batista. He also was in frequent touch with botanists outside Brazil, such as Carlos M.D.E. Legrand, from Uruguay, Lorenzo R. Parodi and Arturo E. Burkart, from Argentina, Harold N. Moldenke, Richard Sumner Cowan, Robert E. Woodson Jr., Conrad V. Morton, Jason R. Swallen, and Lyman B. Smith, from the United States, Noel Y. Sandwith, from England, Joseph V. Monachino, an Italian, working in the United States, and Erik Asplund, from Sweden.
Plant specimens
Plant specimens from his collection are all over herbaria of Brazil and outside. JIn 1963 he donated to the herbarium of the Instituto de Botânica de São Paulo a total of 1723 plant specimens. Between 1943 and 2007 he collected 6008 plant specimens, several of them are considered new species and some were dedicated to him by famous botanists.
New species collected by Macedo
Acanthaceae
Amaryllidaceae
Asclepiadaceae
Bignoniaceae
Bromeliaceae
Compositae
Connaraceae
Gramineae
Labiatae
Liliaceae
Melastomataceae
Velloziaceae
New species dedicated to Amaro Macedo
Acanthaceae
Aspidiaceae
Bromeliaceae
Compositae
Convolvulaceae
Dryopteridaceae
Gramineae
Lauraceae
Leguminosae–Caesalpinioideae
Leguminosae–Mimosoideae
Leguminosae–Papilionoideae
Malpighiaceae
Malvaceae
Melastomataceae
Myrtaceae
Ochnaceae
Onagraceae
Opiliaceae
Orchidaceae
Piperaceae
Polypodiaceae
Rubiaceae
Rutaceae
Velloziaceae
Verbenaceae
Viscaceae