Luther Burbank

Luther Burbank
Born(1849-03-07)March 7, 1849
Lancaster, Massachusetts, US
DiedApril 11, 1926(1926-04-11) (aged 77)
Santa Rosa, California, US
SpousesHelen Coleman, Elizabeth Waters
ChildrenNone
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
PatronsAndrew Carnegie
Author abbrev. (botany)Burbank
Signature
Burbank birthplace in Lancaster, Massachusetts

Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926),[1] an American botanist, horticulturist, and pioneer in agricultural science, developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank worked with (for example) fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. He developed (but did not create) a spineless cactus (useful for cattle-feed) and the plumcot.

Burbank's most successful strains and varieties included the Shasta daisy, the fire poppy (note possible confusion with the California wildflower, Papaver californicum, which is also called a "fire poppy"), the "July Elberta" peach, the "Santa Rosa" plum, the "Flaming Gold" nectarine, the "Wickson" plum (named after the agronomist Edward J. Wickson), the freestone peach, and the white blackberry.

A natural genetic variant of the Burbank potato with russet-colored skin later became known as the russet Burbank potato. This large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the world's predominant potato in food processing. The Russet Burbank potato originated to help with the devastating situation in Ireland following the Great Famine of 1845-1852. This particular potato variety was developed by Burbank and exported to Ireland to "revive that country's leading crop"[2] as it is slightly late-blight-resistant. (Late blight is a disease that spread and destroyed potatoes all across Europe, but caused extreme chaos in Ireland due to the Irish population's high dependency on potatoes as a crop.[3][failed verification])

  1. ^ Luther Burbank. Peach and Other Fruit. US Patent No. PP15. Inducted in 1986, National Inventors Hall of Fame
  2. ^ Smith, Jane S. (2010). The Garden of Invention : Luther Burbank and the business of breeding plants. New York: Penguin Group. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0143116899. [Burbank] developed novelties like the white blackberry and staples like the blight-resistant potato that was exported to Ireland to revive that country's leading crop.
  3. ^ Smith, Jane S. (2010). The Garden of Invention : Luther Burbank and the business of breeding plants. New York: Penguin Group. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0143116899.

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