2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Rarely sedentary, Frank N. Meyer labored and studied plants diligently in Europe to earn passage to the United States. After holding several jobs briefly in the U.S. to fund his botanical exploration, Meyer was hired by the Foreign Plant Introduction Section of USDA. During his four expeditions to Asia (1905 to 1918), he collected many pomological species that could withstand abiotic stress for testing in the U.S. and exchanged germplasm with botanical gardens worldwide. Traveling thousands of miles by foot, Meyer endured harsh weather, scarce food, vermin-infested lodgings, sickness, bandits, poor funding, and multiple bureaucracies, but was only content when collecting economically useful plants. While collecting more than 2,500 plant introductions, he drowned under mysterious circumstances on the Yangtze River. Many of the genetically-useful traits in commercial fruit and nut cultivars today originated from germplasm introduced to the U.S. by this dauntless plant collector.