Charles Edward Hubbard

Charles Edward Hubbard (23 May 19008 May 1980) was a British botanist, specialising in agrostology – the study of grasses. He was considered "the world authority on the classification and recognition of grasses" in his time.

Biography The genus Parapholis (Parapholis strigosa pictured) was described by Hubbard in 1946. The maritime grass Spartina anglica was first validly described by C. E. Hubbard in 1978. Charles Edward Hubbard was born on 23 May 1900 in Appleton, a hamlet on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where his father, also named Charles Edward Hubbard, was the head gardener at Appleton House to Maud of Wales, the Queen of Norway. He was schooled at Sandringham, and at King Edward VII Grammar School in King's Lynn, before joining the staff of the Royal Gardens at Sandringham in 1916. During his time there, he also spent five months at the Bygdøy Royal Estate near Oslo, and served for seven months in the Royal Air Force.

Kew Gardens In April 1920, Hubbard left the Sandringham Estate to join the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, initially working in the temperate house and arboretum. In September 1922, he gained a position in the herbarium, working at first under Stephen Troyte Dunn, and later under Otto Stapf. Hubbard published his first scientific paper in 1925, describing two new species in the genus Stipa. In 1927, he married Madeleine Grace Witham, with whom he fathered a son, John. He visited the herbaria in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, Hubbard is perhaps better remembered for his popular science book Grasses: a Guide to their Structure, Identification, Uses and Distribution in the British Isles, published in 1954, with a second edition following in 1968. (and thus also the subtribe Hubbardochloinae), Hubbardia (and thus also the tribe Hubbardieae) and Pandanus hubbardii.