Wilbur Howard Duncan


Wilbur Howard Duncan was a botany professor at the University of Georgia for 40 years where he oversaw an expansion in the school's herbarium collection and described three new plant species. Duncan also authored several books on plant species of the Eastern and Southeastern United States.

Biography

Duncan was born in Buffalo, New York, on October 15, 1910. He attend Bloomington High School in Indiana. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees, in 1932 and 1933, from Indiana University Bloomington, then his PhD in botany from Duke University in 1938. He then began a forty-year period in the faculty at the University of Georgia.
As Curator of the UGA Herbarium, he increased the collection size from 16,000 to 135,000 specimens. He personally collected over thirty thousand specimens, which he shared with herbaria across the country.
During World War II, Duncan served in the United States Public Health Service, in which he earned the rank of Major. His duties during this period included directing mosquito control for Charleston, South Carolina and serving as state entomologist for Kentucky.
Duncan was married for 64 years to botanist Marion Bennett Duncan, with whom he collaborated on several books, including Wildflowers of the Eastern United States.

Species described

Duncan is the botanical authority who first described three plant species: Quercus oglethorpensis, Trillium persistens, and Baptisia arachnifera. All of these species are endangered.

Associations and honors

Duncan was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Partial bibliography