Jerzy Rzedowski Rotter was a Polish-born Mexican botanist, whose focus was on Mexican floristics, taxonomy, and ecology.
11 Facts About Jerzy Rzedowski
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Jerzy Rzedowski studied for a bachelor's degree in Biology at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional, starting in 1949, and a PhD in Botany at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico awarded in 1961.
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Jerzy Rzedowski then founded the Centro Regional del Bajio, Instituto de Ecologia, Patzcuaro, Michoacan.
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Jerzy Rzedowski explored a lot of places surveying the local plant life and collected more than 50,000 specimens that can be found in many herbaria.
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Jerzy Rzedowski has contributed significantly to the taxonomy of Burseraceae and Compositae.
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Jerzy Rzedowski provided leadership to the botanical community in Mexico and internationally.
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Jerzy Rzedowski was significant in the re-development of the Sociedad Botanica de Mexico and he organized the First Mexican Botanical Congress in 1960.
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Jerzy Rzedowski died in Patzcuaro, Michoacan in March 2023, at the age of 96.
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Jerzy Rzedowski was the author of Vegetacion de Mexico and the co-editor and co-author of Flora Fanerogamica del Valle de Mexico, and of Flora del Bajio y de Regiones Adyacentes.
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In 2005 he, jointly with Graciela Calderon de Jerzy Rzedowski, was awarded the Jose Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany.
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The herbaria of Instituto Politecnico Nacional and of Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro are named after Jerzy Rzedowski, as is the botanical garden of Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro.