The Chronicle of the Dendrologist of HONG Tao

Mr. HONG Tao was a world famous dendrologist. He had been engaged in botany, plant taxonomy, dendrology teaching and scientific research for more than 50 years. He collected specimens on forests and plants in 24 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of China. HONG Tao was born in 1923 in a merchant family in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province and was admitted to the Central University in Chongqing in 1943, transferred to Yunnan University in 1944 to the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nanking, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, in 1945. After graduating from University of Nanking, Nanjing City, in 1948, he stayed at the university and specialized in teaching and research of botany and plant taxonomy, and had a unique interest in tree taxonomy. He successively served as assistants to Dr. Albert N. Steward, an American professor of plant taxonomy, and Professor Chen Rong, a dendrologist. In 1952, he became an assistant to Professor CHENG Wan-chun, a dendrologist in Nanjing Forestry College and participated in the compilation of Text Book of Dendrology, Dendrology of China, Tree Atlas, Dendrology, Sylva Sinica, Afforestation Technology of Major Tree Species in China. In 1979, he worked in the Chinese Academy of Forestry and assisted Professor CHENG Wan-chun in organizing and compiling Volume Ⅰ and Volume Ⅱ of Sylva Sinica. After the death of Professor CHENG Wan-chun in 1983, he continued to serve as the editor, organizing and compiling Volume Ⅲ and Volume Ⅳ of Sylva Sinica, and in 1997 he was one of the chief editors of Higher Plants of China. He died on January 2, 2018 at his 95 years age. During his lifetime, HONG Tao published 13 papers, 14 books (including translations), and edited manuscripts that amounted to over 40 million words. He was a member of the International Society of Arboriculture, deputy director of the first, the second and the third committees of the Dendrology Branch of the Chinese Society of Forestry (Professional Committee), and consultant of the Peony and Paeonia Branch of Chinese Flower Association. Mr. HONG Tao called himself to be "lifelong assistant", "eternal bookmaker" and "conscientious gatekeeper" of Chinese dendrology before his death.