Abstract Detail

Kral-ing Through Time: The Impact of Robert Kral on the Past, Present, and Future of Botany in the Southeastern U.S

Taylor, Kim [1].

Kral-ing Through Time: The Impact of Robert Kral on the Past, Present, and Future of Botany in the Southeastern U.S.

This special colloquium will honor the life, career, and accomplishments of Dr. Robert Kral, former curator of the Vanderbilt University Herbarium. Dr. Kral dedicated more than a half-century of his life to documenting the flora of the southeastern U.S. and is arguably one of the greatest contributors to the knowledge of flora, rare species, and phytogeography of the Southeast. His diligent and prolific collecting has advanced the science of floristics and phytogeography of the region. His work on rare and endemic taxa laid the foundation for the conservation of the south’s most imperiled plants. This session will focus on botany of the Southeastern United States, with special emphasis on how Dr. Kral has influenced the past, present and future work in the region. Speakers will discuss Dr. Kral's career, the herbarium that he built, his contributions to floristics, phytogeography, and plant systematics, the impact his work has had on endangered plant conservation, and how his work impacted our understanding of the phytogeography of the southeastern U.S. and our understanding of the Coastal Plain as a global biodiversity hotspot. This session will honor the life and legacy of Dr. Kral at a time when his health is failing. His pride and joy, the Vanderbilt herbarium collection is currently housed at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, located in Fort Worth Texas a few miles from the location of the 2017 Botany conference. This Colloquium hopes to honor an icon and pass the torch to the next generation of field and taxonomic botanists. A focus on the past, present and future state of botany of the Southeastern US is particularly appropriate now as the Coastal Plain was just named the world’s 36th biodiversity hot spot.

1 - Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Fort Worth, TX

Keywords:
none specified

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Session: CO1, Kral-ing through time: the impact of Robert Kral on the past, present, and future of botany in the southeastern US
Location: Fort Worth Ballroom 4/Omni Hotel
Date: Monday, June 26th, 2017
Time: 8:00 AM
Number: CO1SUM
Abstract ID:19
Candidate for Awards:None