Botanical Sciences 97 (3): 447-538. 2019 Received: February 15, 2019, accepted: April 7, 2019 DOI: 10.17129/botsci.2210 On line first: 25/08/2019 Taxonomy and Floristics/Taxonomía y Florística The Hintons’ legacy to the knowledge of the flora of Mexico El legado de los Hinton al conocimiento de la flora de México George S. Hinton1, José Luis Villaseñor2*, and Enrique Ortiz2 1 Rancho Aguililla, Galeana, Nuevo León, México. 2 Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Departamento de Botánica, Ciudad de México, México. * Correspondig author: [email protected] Abstract Background: The Hinton family comprises three generations of plant collectors that have made an important contribution to the knowledge of the flora of Mexico. They have collected in 13 Mexican states and have provided material for the description of 6 genera, 621 species and 51 infraspecific taxa new to science. Question: What is the contribution of the collections of the Hintons to our knowledge of the flora of Mexico? Where was their main collecting effort and how many species have been recorded? Species study: Vascular plants. Study site: Mexico. Method: Different national and foreign databases were consulted and a list of species collected by the Hintons was obtained. The records were reviewed to eliminate synonymy and a complete list of species and their distribution by states was compiled. Results: A total of 28,947 records were obtained and 25,717 of them were identified to species level. In addition to the family's collection, the herbaria with the largest number of records are LL-TEX, K, IEB, and MEXU. The records come from about 1,654 different collecting localities throughout Mexico and account for 5,730 species, 1,573 genera, and 233 families. Conclusions: Many of the specimens collected by the Hintons come from areas that are still underexplored today. The contribution of the Hinton family to the knowledge of the flora of Mexico represents an important legacy and their collections constitute an enduring source of information for people interested in the flora of Mexico. Key words: Botanical collections, botanical exploration, databases, floristics, Mexican collectors. Resumen Antecedentes: La familia Hinton comprende tres generaciones de botánicos colectores que han hecho una contribución substancial al conoci- miento de la flora de México. Sus recolectas provienen de 13 estados mexicanos y han servido para la descripción de 6 géneros, 621 especies y 51 taxa infraespecíficos nuevos para la ciencia. Pregunta: ¿Cuál es la contribución de las recolectas de los Hinton a la flora de México? ¿Dónde ha estado su principal esfuerzo de recolección y cuántas especies han registrado? Especies de estudio: Plantas vasculares. Sitio de estudio: México. Métodos: Se consultaron diferentes bases de datos nacionales y extranjeras y se obtuvo una lista de especies recolectadas por los Hinton. Los registros fueron revisados para eliminar la sinonimia y se compiló una lista de las especies y su distribución por estados. Resultados: Se obtuvieron un total de 28,947 registros y 25,717 de ellos se identificaron completamente a nivel de especie. Además de la colección de la familia, los herbarios con el mayor número de registros son LL-TEX, K, IEB y MEXU. Los registros provienen de aproxima- damente 1,654 localidades diferentes a lo largo de México y cuentan con 5,730 especies, 1,573 géneros y 233 familias. Conclusiones: Muchos de los especímenes recolectados por los Hinton provienen de áreas todavía poco exploradas actualmente. La contri- bución de la familia Hinton al conocimiento de la flora de México constituye un importante legado y sus colecciones constituirán durante muchos años un conjunto de información muy importante para las personas interesadas en la flora de México. Palabras clave: Bases de datos, colecciones biológicas, colectores mexicanos, exploración botánica, florística. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CCBY-NC (4.0) international. https://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0/ 447 Hinton et al. / Botanical Sciences 97 (3): 447-538. 2019 In 1972, Jaime Hinton and Jerzy Rzedowski published the This paper aims to document and analyze the entire Hin- biography of George Boole Hinton (1882-1943, Figure 1), ton collection in order to evaluate its contribution to our a botanical collector born in London, England (a spanish knowledge of the flora of Mexico. As can be seen in Table version of this contribution was published in 1975). These 1, there are three main periods when the Hinton family (the authors point out that in 1911 he arrived in Mexico and after grandfather, the son, and the grandson) carried out fieldwork, working for many years as a metallurgist, at the age of 54 he mostly restricted to specific regions in the country. The role retired from mining to devote himself to collecting botanical of each set of specimens is evaluated and their contribu- specimens. During ten years of intense activity of fieldwork, tion to the knowledge of the regional and national flora is Hinton managed to make a collection of just over 16,000 discussed. Finally, a list of the accepted species and the col- numbers from difficult and unexplored localities in the states lection numbers documenting their occurrence is provided. of Guerrero, México, and Michoacán. In his biography, Hin- The material that forms the basis of the descriptions of the ton and Rzedowski relate the difficulties encountered and new taxa is highlighted. the effort required to amass one of the best collections of regions of Mexico that to this day persist as scientifically A short story of the collecting effort of the Hinton fam- underexplored due to the ruggedness of the topography and ily. George B. Hinton started fieldwork on October 11th, to social and political unrest. 1931. His first plant collected was Elaphoglossum erinaceum Fondness for collecting botanical specimens was also ac- (Fée) T. Moore in the La Labor, District (now Municipality) quired by George’s son James (1915-2006, Figure 1), who in of Temascaltepec, state of México. His last collection was July 1937 joined his father for fieldwork in the state of Guer- number 16,314 on January 31, 1943 from the Los Hornos, rero. He soon became one of the main collectors of Mexi- District of Temascaltepec. In that period he was assisted by can plants; after his father's death he continued collecting Luis Martínez and Gerónimo García, natives of the region. specimens in other parts of the country, especially Coahuila, On July 23, 1937, his son James left his studies in Canada Nuevo León, Oaxaca, and Tamaulipas. Table 1 indicates the to help his father full time in his collecting enterprise. James number of collections carried out in these states based on the started his collecting in the state of Guerrero. This first period collections of George and James Hinton. Later, when James accounts for about 16,000 collecting numbers and resulted in was living in the state of Nuevo León, his son George Sebas- the description of 471 new taxa. tian (Figure 1) began accompanying James on his botanical After his father´s death in 1944 James collected intermit- explorations. Since then, George S. has continued this tradi- tently in Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Morelos. In 1964 he tion, building up one of the largest personal scientific collec- started collecting again in the alpine areas of southeastern tion documenting the flora of northeastern Mexico, with the Nuevo León and adjacent Coahuila. He also collected in discovery of many new taxa. Based on all these collections, alpine regions of Tamaulipas and later in Oaxaca. James 6 genera and 621 new species were discovered. continued the numbering of his father and his last collecting Figure 1. From left to right: George Boole Hinton, James Hinton, and George Sebastian Hinton. 448 The Hinton’s legacy Table 1. Principal states where the Hinton family carried out field- Results work for collecting botanical specimens in Mexico. The database built by George S. Hinton summarizes all the Collector State Number of collection effort carried out during three generations of his collections family (Table 1). It accounts for 28,947 unique records col- George B. Hinton and James Hinton Guerrero 4,617 lected from 1931 to 2018 (Appendix 1). This figure includes George B. Hinton and James Hinton México 7,681 25,717 records fully identified (to species level) and 3,229 George B. Hinton and James Hinton Michoacán 3,585 unidentified. This latter figure includes 213 records with uncertain, unresolved names. Table 2 summarizes the current James Hinton and George S. Hinton Coahuila 2,155 status of the records organized by main botanical groupings. James Hinton Morelos 178 The angiosperms constitute the best represented group, par- James Hinton and George S. Hinton Nuevo León 8,780 ticularly the dicots (Magnoliopsida) with the largest number James Hinton Oaxaca 855 of records, followed by the monocots and the ferns. The da- tabase includes 26 additional records of non-vascular plants James Hinton Tamaulipas 605 (Cryptogams). George S. Hinton San Luis Potosí 94 The revision of the different databases (GBH, Hinton’s personal collection), SNIB, and UNIBIO) resulted in the combination of a total of 71,136 records that document the was recorded on October 14, 1995 (GBH 26,855). During Hinton collections stored in more than 40 herbaria, either this time, he collected 7,227 numbers, which included 116 national or foreign. Table 3 indicates the number of speci- new taxa. mens stored in the 10 herbaria with the largest number of James’ son George Sebastian started collecting plants records. Without considering the private collection (GBH), in 1989; with his father he made 1,183 collections and 6,712 on his own. After his father’s death, he has contin- ued to conduct fieldwork, mostly in the states of Coahui- Table 2.