Flora Amazônica

Obermüller, F. A., Kjellberg, F., RØnsted, N., Chantarasuwan, B. & Lut, C. W. J., 2013, In memoriam Cees Berg (2 July 1934 - 31 August 2012), Blumea 57 (3), pp. 199-206 : 200

Projeto Flora Amazônica and

The New York Botanical Garden

Kees Berg’s long relationship with The New York Botanical Garden ( NYBG) began in 1977 when he participated in one of the two parallel expeditions that inaugurated Projeto Flora Amazônica (PFA) , part of Brazil’s ambitious plan to document its vast plant diversity. Over more than ten years, most of the financial support for PFA came from the U.S. National Science Foundation , and the non-Brazilian participation was coordinated by Ghillean Prance , curator and later Vice President for Botanical Science at NYBG. Kees’ expedition included Prance , Antônio Sérgio da Silva ( Brazilian counterpart), Michael Balick (then a graduate student and now director of the Institute of Economic Botany at NYBG), Bruce W. Nelson (now an ecologist at INPA in Manaus ), and two tree-climbing mateiros or woodsmen, Mario R. dos Santos and Raimundo P. Bahia (well-known as ‘ Doca’ ). During October –December 1977, the expedition collected plants in the Serra dos Carajás, along the Transamazon Highway, around Tucuruí, in the Serra do Cachimbo, and along the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway. The expedition produced 1921 numbers, including 100 collections of palms .

For more than 40 years, Kees was appreciated by his colleagues at NYBG for sharing his rich knowledge of botany by identifying specimens, training students, publishing monographs, and contributing treatments of his plant families to many floristic projects. Probably his most important contribution to NYBG and to the botanical community overall were his treatments in his groups of expertise for these monographic and floristic projects, among others:

Flora Neotropica: Monographs for the Organization for Flora Neotropica, based at NYBG: Olmedieae and Brosimeae ( Moraceae ) in 1972; Coussapoa and Pourouma (Cecropiaceae) in 1990; Moreae , Artocarpeae and Dorstenia (Moraceae) in 2001; and Cecropia (Cecropiaceae) in 2005; he submitted his treatment of Ficus to Flora Neotropica just before his death. The Moraceae , Cecropiaceae , and Urticaceae for the Guide to the Vascular Plants of Central French Guiana. Those families plus the Ulmaceae for the First Catalogue of the Flora of Acre, Brazil. Another service that Kees provided to NYBG botanists was the identification of nearly all of our collections of Moraceae (including Cecropiaceae ), Urticaceae and Ulmaceae , which has greatly increased the scientific value of our collections. NYBGs institutional database has over 3200 identifications made by Kees over the years, but unquestionably the NY herbarium contains many more, because not all of its specimens are yet databased.

Curators at NYBG are grateful for the nearly 40 years of collaboration with Cornelis Berg, not only for the improvements he made to our collections and the intellectual contributions he made to our publication program, but also because of the close friendships that he maintained with many of our staff. He will be sorely missed, but he will continue to inspire everyone here who had the privilege of knowing him.

DOUGLAS DALY and SCOTT MORI