Calaway Homer Dodson is an American botanist, orchidologist, and taxonomist.

Biography

Dodson specialized in orchidology very early in his career. Over the course of his life, he made numerous expeditions to the tropics of the Americas, covering the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 of Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, and Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, where he collected specimens and discovered new species of different genera of orchids.

In 1960 Dodson began, in collaboration with Robert Dressler, a classification of the Maxillaria

Maxillaria

Maxillaria, abbreviated as Max in horticultural trade, is a large genus of orchids . This is a diverse genus, with very different morphological forms. Their characteristics can vary widely....

 of the Americas. In 1965 he presented a study of the pollinating agents of orchids and the importance that they have on the evolutionary development of the family Orchidaceae

Orchidaceae

The Orchidaceae, commonly referred to as the orchid family, is a morphologically diverse and widespread family of monocots in the order Asparagales. Along with the Asteraceae, it is one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species,...

.

In the spring of 1973, Dodson was named Executive Director of the new "Marie Selby Botanical Garden" in Sarasota, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, of which today he is "Honorary Curator of Orchidaceae". In 1975 Dodson created the genus Dressleria

Dressleria

Dressleria is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae.- References :*Pridgeon, A.M., Cribb, P.J., Chase, M.A. & Rasmussen, F. eds. . Genera Orchidacearum 1. Oxford Univ. Press....

(named after Robert Dressler) including species of the genus Catasetum

Catasetum

Catasetum, abbreviated as Ctsm in horticultural trade, is a genus of the Orchid family , subfamily Epidendroideae, tribe Cymbidieae, subtribe Catasetinae, with 166 species....

, from which he also reclassified other species of the genus Clowesia

Clowesia

Clowesia is a genus of the Orchidaceae family. Species of this genus are epiphytic and contain many pseudobulbs with several interodes. The leaves of this plant are arranged alternatively in two vertical rows on opposite sides of the rachis. The Clowesia has a simple gullet flower that allows...

.

After making various publications related to the world of orchids, Dodson now works on a project to compile information of the orchid family into a database, including images and facts from species from across the world. To date, the project has collected information on 57,000 orchids.

Works

• Clasificación de Maxillariae Dressler & Dodson (1960);
• Agentes de Polinización y su Influencia sobre la Evolución de la Familia Orquidacea (1965);
• Biology of the Orchids (1967);
• Icones Plantarum Tropicarum (1998) (with 2,400 illustrations and 9 new species of Sobralia
  Sobralia
  Sobralia is a genus of about 125 orchids and the only genus of the subtribe Sobraliinae.It is native to Central and South America. The plants are more commonly terrestrial, but are also found growing epiphytically, in wet forests from sea level to about 8,800 ft. The genus was named for Dr....
  
   from Ecuador
  Ecuador
  Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
  
  );
• Illustrated Plants of the Tropics C.H.Dodson, John Atwood. (1980–1993);
• Native Ecuadorian Orchids Volume 1, 2 y 3 (1993, 2001, y 2002).

External links

• http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html