Reid Venable Moran

Who was Reid Venable Moran?

Reid Venable Moran was an American botanist and museum curator who worked at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1957 to 1982.

Moran was the world authority on the Crassulaceae, a family of succulent plants, and in particular the genus Dudleya, the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation. He named at least 18 plants new to science — some in that family and some not — and published many papers elucidating relationships within the Crassulaceae. As a mark of the respect he earned among his peers, more than a dozen plants have been named for him.