Native Timbre: What does Nicholai Vavilov have to do with native pecans?

摘要

I'm sure that many of you out there are saying to yourself, "Vavilov? Who the heck is Vavilov?" Well, I guess it would be more correct to say, "Who the heck was Vavilov?" Nicholai Vavilov was a botanist who was born in Moscow, Russia in the late 1800s. In 1918 he became a professor at Saratov University, studying plant diversity throughout the world and attempting to understand how that diversity affected plant breeding. Vavilov was the preeminent plant geographer of the 20th Century, as he exploredthe major agricultural centers around the world. All told he took part in more than 100 collecting ventures encompassing numerous countries, including Iran, the United States, Central and South America, the Mediterranean, and Ethiopia.