Luis Sodiro

Luis Sodiro (1836–1909) was an Italian Jesuit priest and a field botanist from Vicenza who described a large number of species from the area around Quito, Ecuador in the early 20th century. He was perhaps the first person who collected in this region and he described at least 38 species from Esmeraldas, a region in Ecuador.

Biography He was born in Italy in 1836, in the town of Vicenza in the province of Venice. When he was twenty years old, in 1856, he entered the Order of the Society of Jesus, and went to study theology at the Innsbruck, Austria. He also studied philosophy, languages and natural sciences. He was one of the first botanists to truly collect and identify specimens in the field.

He is one of the protagonists of the Golden age of Ecuadorian botany which started in 1870 when Ecuadorian Ecuadorian President and aristocrat Gabriel García Moreno brought members of a German Jesuits Order to manage the National Polytechnic School and the Quito Astronomical Observatory in Quito. The group consisted of naturalist Theodor Wolf, astronomer Juan Bautista Menten, architect José Kolberg, José Epping, chemist Luis Dressel and botanist Luis Sodiro. Sodiro taught courses at the school as well as in the Central University in Quito and where he replaced Professor Jameson.

His botanical work was based on the collection of plant specimens from throughout Ecuador but with special emphasis on the surroundings of Quito including those on mountain peaks such as Corazón and Pichincha. Carried out over thirty-eight years. The results of his findings were published in monographs, booklet catalogs, and articles. It followed the botanic classification established by A. P. de Candolle in his work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. He had collected many specimens and then sent them to Kew to be later recorded and described by English botanist J. G. Baker.

Notes on the Ecuadorian vegetation. Quito 1874. Recensio Cryptogamae Vasculares Quitenses 1883. Relationship on the eruption of Cotopaxi occurred on June 26, 1877 - Quito: Impr. national, 1877 In the bulletin of the Quito Astronomical Observatory, 1879. Ecuadorian grasses in the province of Quito - Annals of the University of Quito, 1880 Reflections on Ecuadorian agriculture - Quito: Imp. of the Government, 1883 Contribuciones al conocimiento de la flora ecuatoriana (translated - Contributions to the knowledge of Ecuadorian flora); Monographia II. Ecuadorian anturios - Quito: Tip. of the School of Arts and Crafts, 1903

Honours He is honoured in the name of around 297 species records including;

(Alstroemeriaceae) Bomarea sodiroana (Annonaceae) Guatteria sodiroi (Apiaceae) Bowlesia sodiroana (Araceae) Philodendron sodiroi (Araliaceae) Oreopanax sodiroi (Arecaceae) Geonoma sodiroi (Asclepiadaceae) Scyphostelma sodiroi (Aspleniaceae) Asplenium sodiroi (Asteraceae) Acmella sodiroi (Asteraceae) Aldama sodiroi (Begoniaceae) Semibegoniella sodiroi (Campanulaceae) Burmeistera sodiroana (Ericaceae) Sphyrospermum sodiroi (Fabaceae) Nephromeria sodiroana (Grammitidaceae) Grammitis sodiroi (Marcgraviaceae) Marcgraviastrum sodiroi (Myrsinaceae) Cybianthus sodiroanus (Orchidaceae) Elleanthus sodiroi Schltr. Schltr. (Woodsiaceae) Diplazium sodiroanum

The volume of new species he identified, is large: there are about 1019 names published by Sodiro in IPNI on newly discovered species, which he usually published in Annals Univ. Centr. Ecuador, Sert. Fl. Ecuad., Rec., Chilean Hist Magazine. Nat., Crypt. Vasc. Quit.Anal. Univ. Quito and Anthurios Equator.