9509270 D'Arcy The Bignoniaceae family of flowering plants are mostly tropical vines, shrubs, and trees, known to temperate-zone botanists from such species as trumpet-creeper and several ornamentals. There are an estimated 900 species, nearly 800 of which occur in the American tropics. The foremost student of the Bignoniaceae was the widely traveled botanist Dr. Al Gentry, who died in an airplane accident two years ago while on botanical reconnaissance in South America. He left at his home institution, the Missouri Botanical Garden, a wealth of unpublished information on these plants as well as the major collection of herbarium specimens documenting the geographical distributions of all the known species. His colleague Dr. William D'Arcy is now leading a small group of specialists, soon to be joined by a postdoctoral associate specializing on these plants, to finish the taxonomic revisionary work that was underway during Gentry's lifetime. Work to be done includes computer databasing of the several thousands of species identifications completed by Dr. Gentry, for specimens from the American tropics, which in turn provides the foundation for all regional plant inventories. Identification keys, illustrations of detailed botanical parts, descriptions for new species, and comprehensive taxonomic treatments for several neotropical genera are also scheduled, as core activities for a newly trained specialist on the Bignoniaceae.
