Cai Xitao

Who was Cai Xitao?

Cai Xitao or Tsai Hse-Tao was a Chinese botanist from a village near Dongyang, Zhejiang province, China.

In 1928, after studying at various institutions in Hangzhou and Shanghai, though without attaining any formal qualifications, Cai Xitao was able to secure a job at the Jing Sheng Botanic Laboratory in Beijing through family connections. In 1932, he was transferred to Yunnan province, where he worked as a botanist in the province's temperate climate. In 1938, he set up the Yunnan Botany Research Institute in Heilongtan, and acted as the institute's Vice President.

In 1950, Cai Xitao was given charge of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in 1959 the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden was established under his control.

He died on 9 March 1981.

Some of the specimens he collected are now part of the herbaria at Harvard University.