Jesse More Greenman

Jesse More Greenman
Jesse More Greenman in 1912
Born	(1867-12-27)December 27, 1867
Died	January 20, 1951(1951-01-20) (aged 83)
Occupation	Botanist
Years active	1890–1943

Jesse More Greenman (December 27, 1867 – January 20, 1951) was an American botanist. He specialized in tropical flora, with emphasis on plants from Mexico and Central America. He was an authority on the genus Senecio and noted for his work at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Greenman was born in North East, Pennsylvania. Greenman earned his baccalaureate from the University of Pennsylvania 1893, then became an instructor for a year. In 1894 he went to Harvard University studying and working in the Gray Herbarium until 1899 when he earned his master's degree. There he began a long association with Benjamin Lincoln Robinson. In 1901 he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin. He then taught at Harvard from 1902–1905. In 1902 he married Anne Turner, who was born in 1875 and died in 1936. Subsequently, he worked as an assistant to the curator of the Department of Botany of the Natural History Museum in Chicago and as an Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Chicago. He began working at the Missouri Botanical Garden as curator in 1913, remaining there until his retirement in 1943. While he was curator, the collection of flora there grew from 600,000 to about 1,500,000. He was also a professor of botany at Washington University. He suffered a severe stroke in 1945. Greenman and his wife had two sons, Jesse Greenman, Jr. and Milton T. Greenman. Milton accompanied him on his trip to Central America in 1922.

Beginning in 1968, the "Jesse M. Greenman Award" is awarded by the "Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium" in his honor for an academic paper "...judged best in vascular plant or bryophyte systematics based on a doctoral dissertation that was published during the previous year".

"The genera Greenmania P. Hieronymus and Greenmaniella W.M. Sharp were both named after him. Senecio multivenius Benth., S. cooperi Greenm., and S. megaphyllus Greenm. were reclassified in the new genus Jessea H. Robinson and J. Cuatrecases in Greenman's honor."