Koopowitz, Harold 1940-

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KOOPOWITZ, Harold 1940-

PERSONAL: Born September 10, 1940, in East London, South Africa; born to American parents; immigrated to United States, 1964; son of Sunny (a wholesaler) and Winifred (a bookkeeper; maiden name, Miller) Koopowitz; married Margaret Dewar, August 1, 1969 (separated, 1975); children: Lynleigh, Michael Andrew. Education: Rhodes University, B.Sc., 1962, M.Sc., 1964; University of California—Los Angeles, Ph.D., 1968.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 475 Steinhaus Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: University of California—Irvine, assistant professor, 1968-75, associate professor, 1976-80, professor of biology, 1980—, director of Arboretum, 1976-96. Editor in chief, Orchid Digest.

MEMBER: Society for Conservation Biology, Association for Tropical Biology, Botanical Society of America, International Bulb Society, American Orchid Society.

WRITINGS:

(With Hilary Kaye) Plant Extinction: A Global Crisis, Stone Wall Press (Washington, DC), 1983.

(With Norito Hasegawa) Novelty Slipper Orchids, Angus and Robertson (Melbourne, Australia), 1989.

Orchids and Their Conservation, Timber Press (Portland, OR), 2001.

Clivias, photographs by James Comstock, foreword by Sir Peter Smithers, Timber Press (Portland, OR), 2002.

(With John J. Osborn) The California Coast: A Traveler's Companion, 2nd edition, Countryman Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of more than ninety articles to scientific journals.

SIDELIGHTS: Harold Koopowitz, a professor of biology at the University of California, writes to educate readers about endangered plant species. Orchids and Their Conservation, was hailed by Booklist critic Carol Haggas as "the definitive treatise" on orchid ecology. The book presents both a thorough overview of orchid botany and specific recommendations for orchids' conservation, which is threatened by global deforestation and widespread use of chemical pesticides that destroy the flowers' natural pollinators. In Library Journal, Brian Lym observed that Koopowitz's study is "perhaps the most thorough treatment" to date on orchid ecology.

Clivias, considered among the most spectacular and coveted of connoisseur plants, are the subject of Koopowitz's most recent work. Clivias traces the discovery of these distinguished flowering plants in southern Africa, explains their botany, and provides details about cultivation requirements and methods of hybridizing and propagating. The book is the first monograph devoted specifically to clivias' history and current cultivation, and was welcomed by Booklist reviewer Carol Haggas as a source of "invaluable information for both the professional and the amateur."

Koopowitz once told CA: "Plant Extinction was written because there was a need to inform the public about this unrecognized but very important subject. The book was researched and written in six months.

"On worldwide basis, nearly twenty percent of all higher plant species are threatened with extinction and may be lost by the turn of the century. The situation is far more severe than that of animal species, yet the plants have received almost no attention in the popular press. Plants are important because they provide not only food and aesthetic pleasure, but also medicines, timber and fibers, control watersheds, and have important ecological roles. Solutions to the problem are in my book.

"I actually wrote the fiction first and thought it might be easier to find a publisher for that if I was already published. The old catch twenty-two. The fiction stories just bubble up to the surface of my mind, and I find that I have little conscious control over them other than polishing the prose."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2001, Carol Haggas, review of Orchids and Their Conservation, p. 535; August, 2002, Carol Haggas, review of Clivias, p. 1904.

Choice, April, 2002, L. G. Kavaljian, review of Orchids and Their Conservation, p. 1446.

Environment, October, 1985, Francis C. Evans, review of Plant Extinction: A Global Crisis, p. 26.

Geo, July, 1982.

Library Journal, January, 2002, Brian Lym, review of Orchids and Their Conservation, p. 138.

National Wildlife, August, 1984.

New Scientist, October 13, 1990, Peter Raven, review of Plant Extinction, p. 45.