Victor Samuel Summerhayes

Victor Samuel Summerhayes (Street, 21 February 1897 – 27 December 1974) was a British botanist.

Biography

Summerhayes was the orchid specialist for several decades at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. His stay at Kew is acknowledged to have been enormously fruitful, during which time he reviewed several genera of orchids, cataloging and discovering new species.

In 1936 Summerhayes described a new genus of orchids Rangaerii whose type species is: Rangaerii muscicola. Between 1935 and 1968 he published in the & # 34; Kew Bulletin & # 34; a series of works on African orchid species with reviews, reclassifications and new species discoveries:

• 1935. African orchids 7. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew 1935: 195-204
• 1937. Angraecum doratophyllum. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew, 465
• 1937. Brachycorythis basifoliata. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew, 457
• 1937. Orestias stelidostachya. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew, 460
• 1937. Polystachya parviflora. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew, 463
• 1937. Rhipidoglossum brevifolium, Catalogue of the vascular plants of S. Tomé. Blumea, Suppl. I. 83
• 1937. African Orchids IX. Bull. Misc. Inf. Kew. 9: 457 - 476
• 1938. Cynorkis gabonensis. Kew Bull. 1938, 143
• 1948. African orchids 18. Kew Bull. 3 (2): 277-302
• 1949. African orchids 19. Kew Bull. 4 (3): 427-443
• 1951. A revision of the genus Angraecopsis. Bot. Mus. Leafl. Harvard Univ. 41: 240-261
• 1956. African Orchids 23. Kew Bull. 11 (2): 225-227
• 1958. African Orchids 25. Kew Bull. 13 (1): 74-75
• 1960. African Orchids 27. Kew Bull. 14 (1): 156-157
• 1968a. Orchidaceae 1. In E. Milne-Redhead, R.M. Polhill (eds) Flora of Tropical East Africa, Balkema Rotterdam, 236 pp.
• 1968b. Orchidaceae. In J. Hutchinson, J.M. Dalziel (eds) Flora of West Tropical Africa ed 2, 3. Crown Agents, London: 180-276.

In 1951 he revised the genus Angraecopsis. In 1960 he revised the genus Cyrtorchis, publishing the work in the "Kew Bulletin". In 1965 he revised the European orchid species: Dactylorhiza majalis (Rchb.) P.F. Hunt & Summerh. In 1968 he carried out a study on the morphological variations between the populations of the North and South of Ireland, of the orchid Spiranthes romanzoffiana . He also makes a study of the relationship between the genetic structure, seeds and pollen dispersal, of the threatened species, Spiranthes spiralis .

Work

• A revision of the Australian species of Frankenia Summerhayes, V.S. J. of the Linn. Soc. of London 1930
• An enumeration of the Angiosperms of the Seychelles Archipelago Summerhayes, V.S. London, Linnean Soc. 1931
• Suggestion for a vegetation survey of Wimbledon Common Summerhayes, V.S. 1933
• Vegetation after draining Summerhayes, V.S. & W.B.Turril, Nature. 1948
• Wild Orchids of Britain Summerhayes, V.S. Collins, London 1951
• New orchids from Africa. Summerhayes, V.S. Bot. Mus. Leafl. Harv. Univ. 1951
• Flora of West Tropical Africa Summerhayes, V.S. Crown Agents, London 1968

Eponymy

Gender

• (Orchidaceae) Summerhayesia P.J.Cribb

Species

• (Orchidaceae) Bulbophyllum summerhayesii A.D.Hawkes
• (Orchidaceae) Epidendrum summerhayesii Hágsater