Richard Evan Schultes, PhD

Richard Evans Schultes, PhD, is widely regarded as the father of modern ethnobotany. A botanist, explorer, teacher, and longtime Harvard professor, Schultes helped establish the scientific study of relationships among plants, people, culture, medicine, and ecological knowledge. His extensive fieldwork in the Amazon documented the uses of plants by Indigenous communities and brought global attention to the deep botanical knowledge held by rainforest peoples.

Schultes’ work helped shape contemporary ethnobotany, economic botany, medicinal plant research, and rainforest conservation. His legacy continues to inspire BPRA’s commitment to preserving and respectfully disseminating traditional ecological and ethnobotanical knowledge, advancing research on beneficial plants, and supporting community-centered approaches to conservation and human well-being.

For factual support: Harvard describes Schultes as a botanist, explorer, and teacher whose work focused on Indigenous plant uses in the Amazon, plant chemistry, and the vulnerability of tropical South American ecosystems and peoples. Harvard also notes that many regard him as the father of modern ethnobotany and that he received the Linnean Society of London’s gold medal in 1992. The Biodiversity Heritage Library frames his legacy as linking plant taxonomy with the botanical knowledge and cultures of local and Indigenous peoples. You can find out more on his Wikipedia page