Professor Wan Chun Cheng (Chinese: 郑万钧; pinyin: Zhèng Wànjūn, 1904 - 1983) was one of the most eminent Chinese botanists of the 20th century. Initially one of the Chinese plant collectors who followed in the wake of the Europeans after 1920, he became one of the world's leading authorities on the taxonomy of gymnosperms. Working at the National Central University in Nanjing, he was instrumental in the identification in 1944 of the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides previously known only from fossils. The plant Juniperus chengii is named in his honour.
NB: Prof. Cheng is named Wan-Chun or Wan-chün Cheng in some treatises.
The standard author abbreviation W.C.Cheng is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.Famous quotes containing the word wan:
“one pale woman all alone,
The daylight kissing her wan hair,
Loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare,
With lips of flame and heart of stone.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)