K

                   In the following names, the stressed vowel is the one preceding the stress mark. It is not always
                  easy to ascertain where such stress should be placed, especially in the case of epithets derived
                  from personal names. I have tried to follow the principle of maintaining the stress of the original
                  name as outlined in the Jepson Manual, and have abandoned it only when it was just too awkward.
                  In the case of some names, I have listed them twice, reflecting either some disagreement or conflict
                  in the rules of pronunciation, some uncertainty on my part as to the correct pronunciation, or simply
                  that sometimes there is no single correct pronunciation. In other instances, the way I record it is just
                  that which sounds right to my ear.

• ka'li: presumably a derivation from the word alkali, or perhaps they both share a common derivation. This taxon was one of those that were an important source of soda ash since its ashes contain as much as 30% of the alkali material sodium carbonate. The word alkali itself is reported to have been derived from the Arabic al qaly, or "from Kali," and there is a famous area of Saudi Arabia called the Rub al-Kali or Rub al-Khali, the "Empty Quarter." It is likely that the same kinds of alkaline plants grow there such as Chenopodium, Salicornia, Batis as well as Salsola (ref. Salsola kali)
• Kallstroe'mia: after Anders Kallström (1733-1812), an obscure contemporary of Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, the author of the genus (ref. genus Kallstroemia)
• Kal'mia: named after Pehr (Peter) Kalm (1716-1779), Swedish botanist and student of Linnaeus. He travelled extensively in Russia and then was sent by the Swedish government to study the botany and natural history of North America. He spent three years in New York, Pennsylvania and Canada, and wrote about it in Travels Into North America (English edition published in London 1772). After returning to Sweden, he became a professor of natural history and was elected to the Stockholm Academy of Sciences (ref. genus Kalmia)
• kamtschat'icus: of or from the Kamchatka Peninsula (ref. Erigeron acris var. kamtschaticus)
• karvinskia'nus: sometimes spelled karwinskianus, after 19th century German explorer Wilhelm Friedrich Karwinsky von Karwin (ref. Erigeron karvinskianus)
• Keckiel'la: after David Daniels Keck (1903-1995), an American botanist known for his work on experimental taxonomy who collaborated with Philip Munz on A California Flora (ref. genus Keckiella)
• keck'ii: see above entry (ref. Phacelia suaveolens var. keckii, Poa keckii, Sidalcea keckii)
• keil'ii: after David J. Keil, Director of the Robert F. Hoover Herbarium and Curator of Vascular Plants at CalPoly, co-author of California Vegetation and Vascular Plant Taxonomy, and a major contributor to the Jepson Manual project (ref. Erigeron inornatus var. keilii)
• kelley'anum: after Lynwood Julius Kelley (1885-1952), native of Fresno, dairyman for many years for various institutions in Alameda County and an amateur naturalist who assisted John Gill Lemmon in 1902 (ref. Lilium kelleyanum)
• Kellog'gia/kellog'gii: after Dr. Albert Kellogg (1813-1887), American physician, northern California botanist and one of 7 founders in 1853 of the California Academy of Sciences.  One of his forward-thinking ideas was the inclusion of women in scientific and natural history work, and two women who were later hired as curators were Katherine Brandegee and Alice Eastwood.  His specialty was the study of trees, and he published a book called West American Oaks replete with four hundred botanical drawings (ref. genus Kelloggia, also Antirrhinum kelloggii, Hemizonia kelloggii, Poa kelloggii, Polygonum kelloggii, Quercus kelloggii)
• ken'nedyi: named after William Ledlie Kennedy (c1827-?), who collected specimens in Kern Co. (ref. Calochortus kennedyi var. kennedyi, Calochortus kennedyi var. munzii, Eriogonum kennedyi var. alpigenum, Eriogonum kennedyi var. austromontanum, Eriogonum kennedyi var. kennedyi)
• Kentran'thus: see Centranthus
• kentrophy'ta: an old name meaning "spiny growth" (ref. Astragalus kentrophyta)
• kernen'se/kernen'sis: probably meaning "of Kern County" (ref. Delphinium hansenii ssp. kernense, Brodiaea terrestris ssp. kernensis, Camissonia kernensis)
• ker'neri: named after Austrian botanist Anton Joseph Kerner von Marilaun (1831-1898). The following is quoted from a superb website called Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches by Charles H. Smith, Joshua Woleben and Carubie Rodgers at Western Kentucky University: "Kerner von Marilaun's work was well known to both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, who refer to him in their writings. Kerner was in a good position to develop natural history studies, as for most of his professional life he held positions both as director of a botanical garden and as a university professor. He was known especially as an outstanding expert on alpine floras; further, he did important experimental work in an alpine setting when he transported a number of species cultivated in Vienna to high altitudes nearby to examine any changes that might take place, and whether these changes would prove hereditarily transmissible. Changes in form and life cycle were in fact observed, but only remained if the plants were kept at the high altitude location: thus, the environment appeared to be responsible. Kerner's work extended to efforts in regional floristics, systematic botany, and popular writing." He began his career like so many botanists by studying medicine at the University of Vienna, then became a teacher of natural history. In 1860 he was made Professor of Natural History and Director of the botanical gardens and museum of natural history at the University of Innsbruck, and then from 1878 to 1898 was Professor of Systematic Botany at the University of Vienna and Director of the Vienna Botanical Gardens. He was the author of Das Pflanzenleben der Donaulaender (The Plant Life of the Danube Region, 1863), Pflanzenleben (Plant Life, in two volumes, 1890-1891), and Flowers and Their Unbidden Guests 1878), and then in 1895-1896 he published his English language version of the Pflanzenleben, The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution in two volumes (ref. Rumex keneri)
• Kick'xia: after Jean Kickx (Sr.) (1775-1831) and/or his son Jean Kickx (Jr.) (1803-1864). According to Umberto Quattrocchi, Jean Kickx Sr. was a Belgian professor of botany, pharmacy and minerology at a medical school in Brussels, and was the author of Flora bruxellensis, published in Brussels in 1812. Kickx Jr. was apparently also a professor of botany and malacology, and was the original author of Flore cryptogamique des Flandres (Cryptogamatic Plants of Flanders), a work completed and published posthumously in 1867 by his son Jean Jacques Kickx (1842-1887), also a botanist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghent. The genus was named in 1827 so could not be named for J.J. Kickx as the Jepson Manual indicates (ref. genus Kickxia)
• killip'pii: after Ellsworth Paine Killip (1890-1968), a botanist from the National Herbarium of the Smithsonian Institution who by chance was associated with the collection gathered by one of the great biological expeditions of modern times, the Royal Botanical Expedition led by Jose Mutis of Spain to the area known then as Nuevo Granada, an area that today would include large parts of northern South America and southern Central America. This monumental effort began in 1783 with the blessing of the Spanish Court and included botanical, biological and mineralogical surveys. Continuing for some thirty years, the expedition made a vast collection of specimens and descriptions, including some 6000 illustrations of 2700 plant species, possibly the greatest collection of botanical illustrations ever made. After the deaths of Mutis and his successor, Francisco Caldas, the King of Spain summarily ordered the collection shipped to the Royal Botanical Gardens of Madrid, where it languished essentially forgotten and unused until 1929. It was then that E.P. Killip began the enormous job of organizing it, a job whose fruition was not to be until the late 1953 with the publication of the first volume of illustrations. Thus far 23 volumes have been produced representing perhaps one-fifth of the species that were described by Mutis and Caldas (ref. Linanthus killipii)
• king'ii: named after Clarence King (1842-1901), a California geologist connected with the California Geological Survey in the 1860's (ref. Angelica kingii, Antirrhinum kingii, Arenaria kingii, Blepharidachne kingii, Festuca kingii, Lesquerella kingii ssp. bernardina, Lesquerella kingii ssp. kingii, Ptilagrostis kingii)
• kingstonen'se: of or from the Kingston Mountains in northeast San Bernardino County (ref. Galium hilendiae ssp. kingstonense)
• kinkien'se: from the Tongva names Kinki (for San Clemente Island) and/or Kinkipar (a village on that island), this taxon's common name in the Jepson Manual is San Clemente Island larkspur (ref. Delphinium variegatum ssp. kinkiense)
• klamanthen'se/klamathen'sis: of or from the Klamath Range (ref. Ribes inerme var. klamanthense, Arctostaphylos klamathensis)
• klee'i: after Waldemar Goetrik Klee (1853-1891), head gardener of the U.C. 'agricultural experimental grounds' 1878-1886, appointed Inspector of Fruit Pests by the California State Board of Horticulture, one of the original incorporators of the Santa Cruz Mountain Winery, and botanical author on olives and other subjects like "A Treatise on the Insects Injurious to Fruit and Fruit Trees of the State of California." He was born in Copenhagen and came to the U.S. at the age of 19 (ref. Penstemon rattanii var. kleei)
• knappia'na: after Moses Arthur Knapp (1865-1957), a mining engineer (ref. Brickellia knappiana)
• Knipho'fia: named after Johann Hieronymus Kniphof (1704-1763), a German botanist, professor of medicine and author of a work of botanical illustrations (ref. genus Kniphofia)
• Kobre'sia/Kobres'ia: after Austrian botanist and plant collector Joseph Paul von Kobres (Cobres), geologist, minerologist and banker (1747-1823) (ref. genus Kobresia)
• Koch'ia: named for Wilhelm Daniel Josef Koch (1771-1849), a German doctor and professor of botany (ref. genus Kochia)
• Koeberlin'ia: named after Christoph Ludwig Koeberlin (1794-1862), a German clergyman and botanist (ref. genus Koeberlinia)
• koeh'leri: named for Richard Koehler (1844-1932), a railroad official. He was sent to Portland "as special agent for the German and English bondholders of the Oregon & California Railroad" and was later involved with the Oregon Central and Southern Pacific (ref. Arabis koehleri)
• Koeler'ia: after German physician, pharmacist, botany professor and student of the grasses Georg Ludwig Koeler (1765-1807), author of a work on the grasses of Germany and France, Descriptio graminum in Gallia et Germania (1802) (ref. genus Koeleria)
• koelerio'ides: like genus Koeleria (ref. Calamagrostis koelerioides)
• Koelreuter'ia: after Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter (1733-1806), German botanist, physician, professor of natural history, and Director of the Botanical Garden at Karlsruhe (ref. genus Koelreuteria)
• koilolep'is: possibly from the Greek koilos, "hollow," and -lepis, "scale," this taxon's common name is keeled bulrush for whatever that's worth (ref. Scirpus koilolepis)
  
• Kramer'ia: after Johann Georg Heinrich Kramer (1684-1744), an Austrian Army physician and botanist (ref. genus Krameria)
• Krascheninniko'via: after Stepan Petrovich Krascheninnikov (1713-1755), a Russian botanist and Professor of Natural History who as a student at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg was dispatched in 1733 to accompany the Danish explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering on his Great Northern Expedition (1733-1743), which was Bering's second expedition (the first was 1725-1730) to explore easternmost Siberia, and one of the largest scientific ventures the world has ever known. From 1736 to 1740 they explored the vast, little-known peninsula of Kamchatka and the nearby Kurile Islands. For part of that time they were accompanied by George Wilhelm Steller (1709-1746), the great German naturalist who became the first white man known to have stepped upon land that eventually became known as Alaska, and discovered and named the Stellar's jay and the Stellar's seacow, now extinct.. Bering's ship wrecked on the island that bears his name, he (and many of the others) became ill with scurvy, and he died in 1741. His grave and that of five other sailors was only discovered in 1991. Stellar managed to survive the winter and spent several years exploring and collecting plants and animals in Siberia but ran afoul of Czarist bureaucracy when he freed 17 Siberian natives he felt had been improperly imprisoned. Twice he was arrested, tried, imprisoned and then released, but his health collapsed and he died before he could return to St. Petersburg and prepare his report. Krascheninnikov survived to write a report based on his own and Steller's observations, but he died while it was in press. The work, entitled History of Kamtschatka,and the Kurilski Islands... with the Countries Adjacent (published first in 1755) describes the geography and geology of the highly volcanic region, its natural history, and the inhabitants and their customs, dialects, religions, and superstitions (ref. genus Krascheninnikovia)
• kraussia'na: after German malacologist Christian Ferdinand Friedrich von Krauss (1802-1890), a biologist and professor at the University of Stuttgart who travelled and collected in South Africa (ref. Selaginella kraussiana)
• kruckeberg'ii: after Arthur Rice Kruckeberg (1920- ), who earned his PhD. in botany from the University of California at Berkeley in 1950.  Immediately after earning his degree he moved to Seattle from his native California to teach at the University of Washington.  So began his lifelong pursuit of Northwest flora and ecology.  In 1982, Dr. Kruckeberg published Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Guide, the preeminent work for local gardeners wishing to integrate native plants into their home gardens. Later he wrote The Natural History of Puget Sound Country, an outstanding work covering the geology, botany, history, climate, and ecology of the Puget Sound and the impact human settlement has had on the bioregion. [He also wrote California Serpentines: Flora, Vegetation, Geology, Soils, and Management Problems and Geology and Plant Life: The Effects of Landforms and Rock Types on Plants, and as recently as this year, published Washington's Best Wildflower Hikes.] Dr. Kruckeberg stays involved with the University's Botany department as professor-emeritus and the Washington Native Plant Society, an organization he co-founded.  The garden that he and his late wife Mareen established in Shoreline has become the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden, for more information visit www.kruckeberg.org.  He also finds time to play the bassoon with an informal woodwind quintet, the Phoni Ventorum.  The following is from a website by the University of Washington Department of Biology: " Arthur Rice Kruckeberg, born 21 March, 1920 in Los Angeles, fell in love with the plant world at an early age.  He immersed himself in local flora and ornamental plants for gardens all during his school years.  After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors (Phi Beta Kappa initiate) at Occidental College in 1939, he began graduate studies in botany at Stanford University.  World War II intervened and Art became a Japanese Language Officer in the US Navy.  All during the war years, Art found opportunities to pursue studies of plant life in the Pacific theatre (Hawaii, the Mariannas, the Philippines, and in Japan).  After the war, with the aid of the G.I. Bill, Art earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of California (Berkeley) in 1950; his thesis on serpentine ecology and evolution started him on 50 years devotion to the ecology of serpentines and other “kooky” habitats worldwide.  So in 1950, Art began his 50 years tryst with the University of Washington, starting as a lowly instructor and finally as emeritus professor of botany in 1989.  During this long career at UW, Art devoted himself to a variety of endeavors: He taught general botany and biology, plant evolution, and a course in ornamental plants. He served as chair of Botany for seven years (1971-1977) and carried on research in plant ecology and evolution, with many publications on these topics.  Public service has been an important part of his career: adult education (field trips, lectures, short courses), published articles for the general public and a strong commitment to regional conservation.  In the latter arena, he aided the state in establishing a Natural Area Program, served on boards of The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups.  Art was a cofounder in 1976 of the Washington Native Plant Society.  Besides numerous research papers, he has written several books, all of which are in reach of the general public.  Art’s passion for plants is seen in his four-acre home garden, now incorporated and preserved as the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden, in Shoreline, Washington.  With his wife Mareen, the garden has become an outstanding botanical collection and have great aesthetic value to the community." (ref. Polystichum kruckebergii)
• Kumlien'ia: after Thure Ludwig Theodor Kumlien (1819-1880). The following is quoted from a website of the Wisconsin Historical Society: "Pioneer ornithologist and naturalist, born Hertorp, Sweden. He attended Uppsala University, but left school in his senior year (May, 1843) to migrate to the U.S. He came to Wisconsin the same year, and settled at Lake Koshkonong. In that area he collected a vast number of natural-history specimens, especially birds and birds' eggs, and sold them to leading collectors and natural-history museums. For a number of years he was employed by the state of Wisconsin to arrange collections for the state normal schools and the university. He was professor of botany and zoology at Albion Academy (1867-1870), and when the Wisconsin Natural History Society was organized in 1881 he was engaged as taxidermist and conservator of its collections. In 1883 the collections were transferred to the Milwaukee Public Museum, and Kumlien served in the same capacity with that organization until his death. Reluctant to publicize either himself or his work, Kurnlien seldom presented detailed notes or journals to the scientific world. He maintained a correspondence of wide scope, however, and most of his findings are contained in letters to his many friends in the scientific world." (ref. genus Kumlienia)
• kusch'ei: named after John August Kusche (1869-1934). The following is from Cantelow & Cantelow in Leaflets of Western Botany, 1957: "Natural history collector, particularly in entomology. Born in Germany in 1869, died in San Francisco, Calif., 3 Mar. 1934. Made extensive collections in remote South Pacific and Arctic regions, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaiian Islands, and elsewhere; contributed many valuable specimens to collections at Univ. Calif., Berkeley, Calif. Acad. Sci., and other museums." He came to the U.S. in 1886 and was employed for a number of years as a gardener and then as naturalist at a sanatorium (ref. Arenaria macradenia var. kuschei, Castilleja kuschei, Erigeron kuschei, Lupinus kuschei)
• Kyhos'ia/Ky'hosia: named by Bruce Baldwin for Donald William Kyhos (1929- ) of the Department of Botany at Berkeley and Professor Emeritus at UC Davis. He worked with Dr. Baldwin in the late 1980's on the Madia species called silversword in Hawaii, showing that it was closely related to the California tarweeds (ref. genus Kyhosia)
• Kyllin'ga: after Danish botanist Peder Lauridsen Kylling (1640-1696). The following is an English translation of an essay by E. Rostrup in the Danish Biography Lexicon, Vol. 9, on a website of Project Runeberg: "Born in Assens, Denmark, Kylling was the son of Alderman Laurids Kylling (d. 1662). He completed his high school studies in 1660 and earned his degree in divinity in 1666. A few years later, he was ordained as a priest, but for unknown reasons his ordination was immediately canceled. Because of this, Kylling dedicated himself to his botanical studies with great zeal and continued to do so right until his death. The botanist J.W. Hornemann, who was the most competent judge of men, said about Kylling 'this excellent man was without a doubt the most thorough, dedicated, and most experienced of botanists in Denmark until the age of Rottbøll.' In 1680, he was granted free residence at the Valkendorf College Dormitory on the condition that he restore and tend the garden - with the later additional condition that he 'take the students into the fields in the summer'. He then received special permission to live at the College for 16 years, until his death. In 1682, his patron Privy Councilor Moth had him appointed a royal botanist with an annual salary of 300 rix-dollars, which was a considerable sum in those days. His most famous work, Viridarium Danicum, was published in 1688 and contains an alphabetical list of all Danish plants known at the time with their localities in the different parts of the country, although mostly on the Islands. Henrik Gerner and Peder Syv were among the well-known men mentioned in the foreword who provided Kylling with information about the plants. The publication was later (in 1757) systematized by Jørgen Tyche Holm and critically treated (in 1859) by Morten Thomsen Lange. In 1889 Rudolf J.D.von Fischer-Benzon performed a critical study of the species from Schleswig. Kylling himself worked on a new expanded edition, but it was never published. It is said that the famous German botanist Haller kept the manuscript that Kylling intended to print in his library. Another, shorter, work by Kylling was published in 1684 under the name Gyldenlund ('Golden Grove'), containing a list of 404 plants observed by him in Gyldenlund (the present-day Charlottenlund north of Copenhagen). It was the first Danish compilation of special flora. The exactness and completeness of the work makes it especially interesting because one can compare the composition of present day flora with what it was then. Kylling’s contemporaries regarded him as a bit eccentric - and one joking tribute refers to him as 'a funny old fogey'. This was mainly because he lived at the College his whole life and remained unmarried, and because of his quiet, unassuming lifestyle, and his love of working in the garden and wandering about in the fields. Kylling had many enemies and he himself complained that when his Viridarium was being printed, one jealous hand had removed the letter 'n' from the title 'Urtekonstens Mester' ('Master of the Herbal Arts') in Henrik Gerner’s introduction so that it read 'Urtekostens Mester' ('Master of the Nosegay') instead. The introduction was placed in the beginning of the book according to the custom of that time. Christen Friis Rottbøll named a plant species in his honor." (ref. genus Kyllinga)