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:
“bacterial creepers
Wriggling through wounds
Like elvers in ponds,
Their wan mouths kissing the warm sutures,
Cleaning and caressing,
Creeping and healing.”
—Theodore Roethke (1908–1963)