Timothy Plowman

Timothy Plowman
Born	November 17, 1944
Died	January 7, 1989
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Cornell University, Harvard University
Known for	· intensive systematic study of coca
Scientific career
Fields	ethnobotany
Institutions	Field Museum of Natural History
Doctoral advisor	Richard Evans Schultes
Influences	Richard Evans Schultes
Influenced	Wade Davis

Timothy Plowman (November 17, 1944 – January 7, 1989) was an ethnobotanist best known for his intensive work over the course of 15 years on the genus Erythroxylum in general, and the cultivated coca species in particular. He collected more than 700 specimens from South America, housed in the collection of the Field Museum of Natural History.

Plowman joined the Field Museum of Natural History in 1978 where he became tenured in 1983 and was appointed Curator in 1988. He published more than 80 scientific papers (46 on Erythroxylum) and served as editor for several scientific journals.

He is one of the main subjects of One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest by Wade Davis. Both were students of Richard Evans Schultes, the father of modern ethnobotany.

Plowman died of AIDS, which he contracted from pre-trip inoculations. The nightshade species Brunfelsia plowmaniana was named after him.

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