J. M. Beitel

  • Name

    Joseph M. Beitel

  • Dates

    1952 - 22 Feb 1991

  • Specialities

    Pteridophytes

  • Roles

    Author, Determiner, Collector, Writer

  • Movement Details

    United States of America, Venezuela

  • Notes

    Determiner Notes: Pteridophyte authors
    Author Notes: Lycopociaceae: MICH, NY

    See Obit from Brittonia 43(2): 123-124. 1991.


    He died at NY Hospita on 22 Feb 1991, which is New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital was the oldest hospital in New York City and the second oldest hospital in the United States.[1] In 1998 it merged with Presbyterian Hospital to form NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital.
    Joe Beitel - obit
    Joseph M. Beitel (1952-1991)
    John T. Mickel and W. H. Wagner, Jr.
    ---------------------------

    Joe Beitel, horticultural taxonomist at the New York Botanical Garden for five years, died February 22, 1991, of a brain infection. He was one of the better rounded botanists of our time, with outstanding achievements in science (pteridology), horticulture, and teaching.

    Joe's interest in plants began at an early age. In third grade he won a prize for a school project, an experiment growing sweet peas, and he was always begging his indulgent father to take him to the woods. He was strongly influenced also by a high school science teacher, Art Cooley, and went to Cornell University to study botany. He continued his studies with W. H. Wagner, Jr., at the University of Michigan, where he made an intensive study of the American species "gemma firmosses," the Huperzia selago complex. Two of Joe's missions in life were 1) to advise the public that this group had no cones so could not be called c1ubmosses, and 2) to convince every audience that the classic Lycopodium should be considered as seven or more distinct genera.

    He became a research associate at the New York Botanical Garden in 1982 and took the post of horticultural taxonomist in 1986. Joe was a world authority on the North American clubmosses, published 25 scientific papers, and gave 18 papers at scientific meetings. Joe also co-authored with John Mickel the "Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico," and a booklet on hardy ferns. Just before his death he helped Herb Wagner complete the treatment of Lycopodiaceae for the Flora of North America. His bibliography will be published in the American Fern Journal.
    (The above is a shortened form of the article in Brittonia, 43 (2), 1991, 123-125
    Copyright 1991, by the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458.).

  • Collections

    Botanical Collections