CAS academician Keping Ma honors Peter H. Raven: A global botanist who became a friend to China’s plant science

BEIJING – Peter H. Raven, one of the most influential botanists and biodiversity advocates of the modern era, passed away on April 25, 2026, at the age of 89. In a commemorative review published in Biodiversity Science, CAS academician Keping Ma of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, honors Raven’s legacy with a deeply respectful remembrance—framing him not only as a scientific giant but as a cherished international friend to China’s plant science community. The article published in Vol. 34 with doi: 10.17520/biods.2026169 or cstr: 32101.14.biods.2026169.

Raven’s landmark 1964 paper with Paul R. Ehrlich on butterflies and plants formally introduced the concept of coevolution, shifting evolutionary biology from isolated organisms toward reciprocal adaptation and ecological networks. He also made major contributions to angiosperm biogeography, linking plant distributions to continental drift.  

As the director and president of the Missouri Botanical Garden for nearly four decades from 1971, Raven built the institution into a global hub for plant taxonomy, tropical botany, conservation biology, and botanical informatics.

Raven was also a persistent advocate for plant conservation at the global policy level, helping shape the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

His connection to China was exceptionally close. Raven served for 35 years as international co-editor-in-chief of the Flora of China project, the English revision of the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae. Completed with more than 400 collaborators, the work documented 312 families, 3,328 genera, and 31,362 plant species, roughly half of them endemic to China. He also played an important role in helping China launch biodiversity research in the early 1990s— not far behind international developments—and later promoted the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) China Regional Center through lectures and working meetings in Beijing in 2008 and 2009, directly supporting the establishment of the EOL-China project.

Raven received the CAS International Science and Technology Cooperation Award (2009) and the Friendship Award of the People’s Republic of China (2010), the highest honor granted by the Chinese government to foreign experts.

"Plants carry the history of the Earth, and they also carry the future of humanity," Ma writes in his commemorative article.

Original Source: Keping Ma. In deep remembrance of Dr. Peter H. Raven’s contributions to plant science and biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity Science. 2026, 34(4): 26169. https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2026169; https://doi.org/10.17520/biods.2026169 

About Biodiversity Science

Launched in 1993—the same year China ratified  the Convention on Biological Diversity—Biodiversity Science  (http://www.biodiversity-science.net)  has grown into a leading journal in China’s biological sciences. Rooted in China with a global outlook, the journal showcases the country’s progress in biodiversity research and has steadily gained international influence.