Peter Raven, groundbreaking botanist, dies at 89
The transformative leader of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Raven coined the word "coevolution" and promoted plant conservation.
World-renowned botanist Peter Raven who turned a minor botanical garden in the U.S. heartland into an international research and conservation powerhouse, died at 89 years old on April 25, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG).
In nearly four decades as president and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Raven raised the little-known arboretum to the status of a world-class institution, using it as a base for plant research throughout the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Madagascar.
"He literally transformed public gardens into tools of outreach to help people understand the value of science in preserving biodiversity and the conservation of plants," said U.S. National Arboretum Director Colien Hefferan in awarding Raven her institution's Medal of Excellence in 2014.
Influence and impact
In 1999, Time magazine called Raven a "Hero for the Planet," and his influence as a researcher, mentor, and champion of conservation extended far beyond the Midwest. Generations of scientists count themselves part of "Raven's army," said botanist Pete Lowry, former director of the MBG's Africa and Madagascar department. "He was a connector of people. His impacts were multiple and multifaceted."
Raven influenced and helped many researchers as a trustee and chair for nearly 15 years of the National Geographic Society's grant-making Committee for Research and Exploration. He was also a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during the Clinton administration and served for a dozen years as home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences.
Evolution breakthrough
His own conservation efforts were groundbreaking.
In 1964, he and biologist Paul Ehrlich coined the word "coevolution" in their seminal article, Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution. In a now commonly accepted concept, the scientists described a reciprocal connection between plants and other organisms that suggests when one species changes through natural selection, others depending on it must as well—as in the case of flowers and the insects that pollinate them.
"It was a significant turn in understanding the more complex relationships between different species on the planet," said John Francis, former vice president of research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society.
A decade later, in 1974, Raven and paleobotanist Daniel Axelrod wrote a foundational paper that described the impact of plate tectonics on flowering plant biogeography and evolution. That work on continental drift led Raven to concentrate the MBG's international research on historically biodiverse or unstudied regions in the tropics of Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar.
Raven bucked the tendency of many conservation groups to focus on animals because they were more interesting to donors. "He made the case that understanding the fundamental role plants play in sustaining the ecology of our planet is every bit as important," Lowry said.
The botanist was a great cataloger and collector of flora, especially those on the verge of extinction. His early research on Onagraceae, the evening primrose family, was a classic in the field of botany and became a model for evolutionary studies. In later years, he spent a quarter century as co-editor of Flora of China, an international project that produced a 49-volume encyclopedia of 31,500 plant species in China.
Raven's interest in China came naturally. He was born to American parents in Shanghai on June 13, 1936, but when a family-owned bank and real estate business failed, the family moved to San Francisco. He first became interested in botany as a child and was admitted to the student section of the California Academy of Sciences.
Raven's journey to botany
He earned an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957 and three years later received a Ph.D. in botany from the University of California, Los Angeles. Raven spent nine years teaching at Stanford University before moving to the Midwest in 1971 to take over the Missouri Botanical Garden, which at the time had just three Ph.D. botanists on staff. When he retired as director 39 years later, it had nearly 50.
Raven, who was also George Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis, authored hundreds of books and papers and co-wrote two best-selling textbooks, Biology of Plants and Environment.
A member of national academies of science in more than a dozen countries and the recipient of many honorary degrees, his accolades included the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest honor for scientific accomplishment, and a MacArthur "genius" fellowship.
An affable presence with a great sense of humor, Raven possessed an "ability to lead," said Francis. "He had this incredible intellect as well as breadth that allowed him to weave together complex stories—ranging from politics to cultural challenges to intimate biological facts—to create a clearer understanding of how humans relate to the planet and how we can make better choices when it comes to conservation of biodiversity."
He is survived by his wife, botanist Patricia Duncan Raven, and four children.
