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Blumea 57, 2012: 103 –104
www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea http://dx.doi.org/10.3767/000651912X653408
HOMAGE
When on the 14th of August this year Dr. M.M.J. (Max) van
Balgooy celebrates his eightieth birthday, we expect him to be
at the herbarium to solve another identity problem or two of
Malesian plant specimens in the Leiden herbarium collection,
or especially sent to him by a colleague from abroad desperate
to have his or her plants reliably named. For Max, the gently
induced early retirement in 1994 (senior scientists in university
service were thus encouraged to help budget savings in the
nineties in The Netherlands) never meant the end of botanical
research, it only opened the way to more freedom to devote time
to his great passion: tropical plants. In recent years, that means
spending quality time in Leiden with the herbarium collections
overseeing the pre-identifications of all incoming specimens
from SE Asia and the Pacific, alternating with prolonged stays
with his wife Helga in their home on Bali.
Max was born in 1932 in Central Java from an Indonesian
mother and a Dutch father. He spent his formative years on
his parents’ farm and in the surrounding forests on the slopes
of Mt Slamet, satisfying his curiosity in the natural history of
his agricultural and natural environment. The Second World
War and Japanese occupation of Indonesia meant a hiatus in
formal school training, but gave all the more time to explore the
wonders of Javanese nature. High school (HBS-B) in Bandung
was successfully completed in 1952, followed by a BSc in
1957 at the University of Indonesia also in Bandung; in both
high school and university he was taught and inspired by the
well-known pollination biologist Prof. L. van der Pijl. In 1958
he traveled to Leiden for his MSc study, for which he explored
phytogeographical as well as zoological, ecological and etho-
logical themes. Upon obtaining his degree in 1961 he joined
the Rijksherbarium staff, initially unsalaried, later supported
by a prestigious national research council grant. In 1964 he
obtained a tenured research post at the Rijksherbarium, then
an integral part of Leiden University. Under the stimulating
guidance of Prof. C.G.G.J. van Steenis he made a compre-
hensive and critical analysis of all genera of phanerogams in
the Pacific, resulting in his PhD thesis on ‘Plant-Geography of
the Pacific’ published as a Blumea Supplement in 1971, and
still a classic reference. In the summary of his thesis Max men-
tions unreliable plant identifications as the greatest potential
source of error in this kind of analysis. No wonder, therefore,
that he devoted so much time and effort throughout his botani-
cal career to the identification of herbarium specimens. In his
early years at the Rijksherbarium he was allowed to join the
two formidable experts of Malesian flowering plants, Professor
Van Steenis and Dr. R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink, in their
frequent identification sessions of incoming herbarium material.
He would soon rival or even exceed their expertise and in the
first decade of his retirement Max would make that collective
expert information accessible for a wider audience in his trilogy
on Malesian Seed Plants (1997, 1998 and 2001), including a
volume illustrating and defining diagnostic spot-characters of
families and a large number of species-rich genera, and two
volumes on the individual families of trees, shrubs, climbers and
herbs in the Flora Malesiana area. This trilogy has rightly been
hailed as a milestone in Malesian botany, and forms the basis of
a later, and still current, project to produce user-friendly digital
identification keys, web-based and on CD-ROM, jointly with the
SE Asia team of the Kew Herbarium. Plans for a completely
new edition to be published in Singapore are being rumored.
Throughout his career, plant collecting in the Malesian and
Pacific region was a main preoccupation. Max made substantial
collections in the following localities: Mt Wilhelm in Papua New
Guinea (1965); Australia: Lord Howe Island, Northern Territory,
and Queensland (1965, 1971); Tahiti and Bora Bora (1971); Ma-
laya (1974, 1975, 1996); Sulawesi (1979); Hawaii (1982, 1992)
On Max van Balgooy’s 80th birthday
P. Baas
1
, M.C. Roos
1
, P.C. van Welzen
1
Published on 6 July 2012
1
Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis (section NHN), Leiden Uni-
versity, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands;
corresponding author e-mail: Pieter.Baas@naturalis.nl.
Dr. M.M.J. van Balgooy (photo by B.N. Kieft).
104
Blumea – Volume 57 / 2, 2012
New Zealand (1983), Maluku (1984, 1992–1994); Kalimantan
(1986–1990); New Caledonia (1995); Sabah (1996, 1998),
Manado (2003 2005) and multiple collections from Bali and
Java. Fifteen species of plants and insects were named after
him, including Balgoya pacifica Morat & Meijden (Polygalaceae)
from New Caledonia.
Although priding himself on being a fanatic botanist or botani-
cal nerd (‘vakidioot’, echoing his teacher Van Steenis), Max’s
life knows more passions than just botany. A very major one is
sports, especially badminton. Following a respectable career
with his wife Helga, whom he met on a badminton court, as high
level competitors in this noble sport, Max was a national and
international umpire for 22 years, retiring during a self-selected
match of the Ladies’ Single final at the Scottish Open in 1988.
Good food and humor are two other hobbies from which his
friends and colleagues have benefited. Max’s satay and sa-
taysauces are famous and have enriched many a Herbarium
BBQ. Sketches in Indonesian Dutch presented during staff
parties were another much-loved treat. On the occasion of Prof.
Van Steenis´ retirement in 1972 Max assembled and edited a
collection of hilarious anecdotes under the title ‘Steenisiana’:
a very important source for future biohistorians.
Throughout his career Max has felt part of the Flora Malesiana
network initiated by Professor van Steenis. Members of that
extended family from all over the world, but mostly from the
Malesian region, are very much indebted to Max, especially for
his continuing efforts to correctly (pre-)identify their herbarium
specimens. Although not listed by the web of science, correct
identification labels on herbarium specimens are in fact impor-
tant mini-publications without which all subsequent highflying
ecological, phytogeographical and other analyses based on
botanical collections would be impossible. Max, many thanks
for your continued efforts and for passing on your expertise to
a younger generation. May you continue for many years with
Helga at your side.
Selected references
Van Balgooy MMJ. 1971. Plant geography of the Pacific as based on a
census of phanerogam genera. Blumea Supplement 6, 222 pp.
Van Balgooy MMJ. (red.). 1972. Steenisiana – anecdotes around Professor
Dr. C.G.G.J. van Steenis. Leiden, Rijksherbarium, 38 pp.
Van Balgooy MMJ. (& C.G.G.J. van Steenis, eds). 1966 –1993. Pacific Plant
Areas Vols. 2, 3, 4 & 5. Leiden, Rijksherbarium.
Van Balgooy MMJ. 1997. Malesian Seed Plants Vol. 1. Spot-characters – an
aid for the identification of families and genera. Leiden, Rijksherbarium,
154 pp.
Van Balgooy MMJ. 1998. Malesian Seed Plants Vol. 2. Portraits of tree
families. Leiden, Rijksherbarium, 307 pp.
Van Balgooy MMJ. 2001. Malesian Seed Plants Vol. 3. Portraits of non-tree
families. Leiden, National Herbarium of the Netherlands. 260 pp.
... On 3 September 2021 Max van Balgooy passed away, just 3 weeks after his 89th birthday. On the occasion of his 80th birthday we published a laudatio, which also gave a concise biography (Baas et al. 2012), which we will not repeat in detail. Here we will focus on the achievements of his last nine years and borrow from his own reminiscences (in Dutch: Herinneringen), privately published 40 days after his death by his family (Van Balgooy 2021) following the Indonesian tradition to commemorate the demise of a loved one after this period. ...
... Etymology. This species is named in honour of Max Michael Josephus van Balgooy; a pre-eminent expert on the Malesian flora, who extensively collected in the region and led a major Indonesian-Dutch expedition to Sulawesi in 1979 (see Baas et al., 2012). ...
Article
Full-text available
Based on collections from the Matarombeo limestone mountain range in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, the two new species Begonia balgooyi D.C.Thomas & Ardi and B. matarombeoensis D.C.Thomas & Ardi are described and illustrated, and an amended description and a photo plate of B. watuwilensis Girm. are provided. These species are restricted to limestone habitats and endemic to Southeast Sulawesi. Provisional conservation assessments indicate an Endangered (EN) status for all three species.
Plant geography of the Pacific-as based on a census of phanerogam genera
  • Van Balgooy
Van Balgooy MMJ. 1971. Plant geography of the Pacific-as based on a census of phanerogam genera. Blumea Supplement 6, 222 pp.
Steenisiana-anecdotes around Professor Dr. C.G.G.J. van Steenis
  • Mmj Van Balgooy
Van Balgooy MMJ. (red.). 1972. Steenisiana-anecdotes around Professor Dr. C.G.G.J. van Steenis. Leiden, Rijksherbarium, 38 pp.
Spot-characters-an aid for the identification of families and genera
  • Van Balgooy
Van Balgooy MMJ. 1997. Malesian Seed Plants Vol. 1. Spot-characters-an aid for the identification of families and genera. Leiden, Rijksherbarium, 154 pp.
Portraits of tree families
  • Van Balgooy
Van Balgooy MMJ. 1998. Malesian Seed Plants Vol. 2. Portraits of tree families. Leiden, Rijksherbarium, 307 pp.
Portraits of non-tree families
  • Van Balgooy
Van Balgooy MMJ. 2001. Malesian Seed Plants Vol. 3. Portraits of non-tree families. Leiden, National Herbarium of the Netherlands. 260 pp.