António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva

Who is António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva?

António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva, often referred to as A.R. Pinto da Silva or P. Silva, was a Portuguese botanist who distinguished himself as a taxonomist and phytosociologist when he collaborated with Swiss botanist Josias Braun-Blanquet and also with Pierre Dansereau.

His studies on taxonomy and floristic yielded a substantial number of new taxa and a better knowledge about many plants and its nomenclature. He organized the Estação Agronómica Nacional's herbarium, which he rose from 3000 to almost 100,000 entries. He was a pioneer on ethnobotany studies in Portugal and published several contributions on vernacular nomenclature of Portuguese flora, cultivated plants and popular use of wild plants as food. For half a century he helped archaeologists, having published numerous works on paleoethnobotany, among more than 300 articles, notes and communications published throughout his life both in Portuguese and foreign publications.