Velva Elaine Rudd (1910 – December 9, 1999) was an American botanist, specializing in tropical legumes.[1] She worked as a curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and also conducted research at the herbarium at California State University, Northridge.[2][3]
Early life
Velva Elaine Rudd was born in 1910 in Fargo, North Dakota.[4]
Education and career
Velva Rudd wrote her master's thesis at North Dakota Agricultural College on Euphorbia virgata (leafy spurge).[5] The thesis is titled An ecological study of leafy spurge and was completed in 1932.[6] In 1953 she received her Ph.D. in botany from George Washington University with a dissertation titled The American Species of Aeschynomene.[7] She was an assistant curator from 1948 to 1959 and a curator from 1959 to 1973 in the Department of Botany, United States National Herbarium Smithsonian Institution of Washington, DC. She had started as a technician at the Smithsonian under Kittie Fenley Parker. Rudd specialized in Fabaceae and wrote more than 70 papers on the taxonomy of tropical species of legumes. Her contributions include a six-part monograph published from 1955 to 1968 in Contributions from the United States National Herbarium; the monograph deals with seven genera: Aeschynomene, Ateleia, Chaetocalyx, Cyathostegia, Dussia, Nissolia, and Ormosia.[1] In 1973 she retired as a curator of the National Herbarium.[1] She became a Research Fellow in the Department of Biology of the California State University, Northridge until her death.[8][9] Her field work was carried out in many tropical locations, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Venezuela, and Sri Lanka.[1]
Rudd is the namesake for six species of legumes and the genus Ruddia.[2] North Dakota State University's Department of Biological Sciences sponsors an annual Dr. Velva E. Rudd Scholarship Award for botany juniors or seniors.[10]
Eponyms
The Mexican genus of legumes Ruddia Yakovlev 1971 is named in her honor, as well as several species of legumes:
- (Fabaceae) Acacia ruddiae D.H.Janzen (from Costa Rica)[3]
- (Fabaceae) Dioclea ruddiae R.H.Maxwell (from Venezuela)[3]
- (Fabaceae) Nissolia ruddiae Cruz Durán & M.Sousa
- (Fabaceae) Ormosia ruddiana Yakovlev (from Minas Gerais, Brazil)[3]
- (Melastomataceae) Clidemia ruddae Wurdack (from Mexico)[3]
- (Mimosoideae) Vachellia ruddiae (D.H.Janzen) Seigler & Ebinger
Taxa named by Rudd
- Paramachaerium krukovii Rudd (from western Brazil)[11]
- Paramachaerium schunkei Rudd (from Peru)[11]
- with Annetta Mary Carter: Acacia kelloggiana A.M.Carter & Rudd[12][13]
with Mario Sousa
- Styphnolobium burseroides M.Sousa & Rudd[14]
- Styphnolobium caudatum M.Sousa & Rudd (native to Nicaragua)
- Styphnolobium conzattii (Standl.) M.Sousa & Rudd
- Styphnolobium monteviridis M.Sousa & Rudd[14] (native to Central America)
- Styphnolobium parviflorum M.Sousa & Rudd[14]
- Styphnolobium protantherum M.Sousa & Rudd[14]
- Styphnolobium sporadicum M.Sousa & Rudd[14]
