Edward Johnston Alexander

Who is Edward Johnston Alexander?

Edward Johnston Alexander was an American botanist who discovered three species and one genus, but only named one of them. He was born in Asheville, North Carolina and studied at North Carolina State University from 1919 to 1923, though he failed to graduate. He was a longtime assistant and curator at New York Botanical Garden, originally under the guidance of John Kunkel Small.

Alexander undertook several botanical expeditions in his lifetime, including to Pecos, Texas with J.K. Small and the southern Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains with Thomas H. Everett. His most successful expedition was to southern Mexico from 1944 to 1945. On that trip, he collected around 1,600 specimens and 1,000 seeds and roots for the herbarium and propagation houses at New York Botanical Garden.

Alexander never married. He died in 1985.