page_title: Mulford B. Foster
section_title: Explorer and Collector
hierarchical_section_title: Mulford B. Foster / Professional career / Explorer and Collector
caption_attribution_description: Location: Botanical Gardens Berlin Dahlem Habitus and Inflorescence
context_page_description: Mulford Bateman Foster was a botanist known by many as the "Father of the Bromeliad" as he was instrumental in the discovery and introduction of many new species of Bromeliad to the United States. He also devoted his life to hybridizing and contributed widely to the knowledge of the plant species. He was a man of many talents including naturalist, explorer, writer, photographer, artist, horticulturist and a well-respected landscape architect in Florida. Numerous bromeliad plants found today are named after various Foster family members and the genus Fosterella is named in honor of his work.
context_section_description: Mulford began traveling to Mexico in 1935 taking his first trip with Tibor Pataky, an artist friend. This trip was written about in his book Adventures in Mexico. He returned with Racine, his second wife in 1936 and began making frequent trips to South America over the next twenty years. Mulford had a great interest in finding both new and old species of plants that could be used as both indoor decorations and landscape material. In 1938 Mulford made a Cuban expedition and from this trip he introduced Agave caribbea to Florida. Around this same time Mulford met Lyman Smith who was working at Harvard's Gray Herbarium, being referred to him by sources in the Smithsonian. Lyman ultimately would be of help with the identification and classification of the bromeliads that Mulford would be collecting. It is Lyman Smith who directed him to Brazil as he had himself been there and collected specimens. Mulford had initially expressed an interest in exploring Dutch Guiana Mulford's and Racine's book Brazil, Orchid of the Tropics, a long out of print book but available through used sources was a well told story of their 1940 trip to Brazil. The book was a success and its completion brought the artful teamwork that was to mark the relationship between Racine and Mulford. His keen vision, liveliness and resourcefulness balanced with her devotion and help in caring for all of the plants and helping organize his materials, keep fastidious notes of her own were replicated many times over the years with many projects. In 1939 Mulford set off to Brazil again for six months covering much better known areas than their previous trip. Mulford was again able to find new species in places that were supposedly already previously explored and declared exhausted by prior collectors over the previous one hundred and fifty years. Mulford recollected a number of "lost" species during his trips to Brazil. He introduced the brilliant yellow flowering tree, Tabebuia umbellate to North America. This tree is now famous in Orlando, Florida. In 1940 he made his second six month expedition to Brazil and Trinidad this time specializing on bromeliads, orchids and philodendrons. From this trip he introduced many new bromeliads and the now famous self-heading philodendrons. World War II put a stop to further expeditions for some years. Mulford turned his attention to cultivating and popularizing the bromeliads. He continued to work with Lyman Smith who continued to describe and identify the bromeliads that had been brought back from Brazil in the preceding years. In 1946 Mulford resumed his expeditions. From Brazil he brought back the begonia acetosa and introduced it to US gardeners. He and Racine also traveled to Columbia. This trip followed the earlier trail of the famous Édouard André to confirm and add to his discoveries 75 years before. These were considered one of the most important bromeliad areas of Latin America. In 1948 he made a plant expedition around South America collecting in Dutch Guiana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia Costa Rica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Several years later in 1951 he would leave on a Venezuelan plant expedition. This was followed in 1954 to Jamaica with his final plant collecting trip made to Mexico in 1957. During these trips Mulford not only collected thousands of herbarium specimens for the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, DC where all of the scientific data is now on file but he also collected thousands of seeds and live plants to enrich the variety for Florida gardens.
  The following is a list of the various South American locations that Mulford was known to have traveled for plants outside the U.S., frequently with his wife Racine at his side.  The process of collecting and preserving the specimens was rigorous and well documented in existing records.
  Brazil
  Peru
  Bolivia
  Ecuador
  Panama
  Costa Rica
  Mexico
  Puerto Rico
  Colombia
  Dutch Guiana
  Cuba
  Jamaica
  Venezuela
  Trinidad
caption: Aechmea orlandiana is one of the new species discovered by Mulford in Brazil and named after his home town of Orlando, Florida.
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