Paul Thomson

Paul Thomson (June 29, 1916 – May 31, 2008) was an American exotic fruit enthusiast, self-taught horticulturist and botanist, fruit farmer, and the co-founder of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association, a group of amateur horticulturists which now has more than 3,000 members in approximately 35 countries. Thomson is credited with helping to expand the farming of exotic fruits in California – everything from cherimoyas to longans to pitahayas. Thomson also wrote one of the few literary treatments of the genus Dudleya, and was an avid collector of the plants.

Life

Early life Paul Thomson was born on June 29, 1916, in India to parents, Clinton and Bertha Mangon Thomson.

The association rapidly grew in California during the late 1960s, in part because many newcomers were moving to the state "without prejudice to what could not be grown" in California. However, Thomson failed to follow the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in place at the time, which invalidated most of his new treatments of species. Despite this, some of the plants Thomson first suggested as distinct were later described properly by other botanists, one example being Dudleya gnoma by Stephen Ward McCabe, which was originally placed as Dudleya nana by Thomson.

Thomson shared his plants freely and supporters provided specimens from their respective collecting trips. Thomson also shared his insights into their hybridization with avid enthusiasts and his findings were later confirmed as naturally occurring, as he had suspected. Most of his collection was lost during a severe freeze. His contributions to the knowledge of the genus Dudleya is overshadowed by his work on the rare fruits.