alan w meerow is an american botanist born in new york in 1952 he specializes in the taxonomy of the family amaryllidaceae and the horticulture of palms and tropical ornamental plants he also works on the population genetics and molecular systematics of cycads and palmshe studied at the bronx high school of science and then at the university of new york dropping out after a year aged 19 he moved to santa cruz california after living on a farm for four years he decided to resume his studies in botany and horticulture at the university of californiainitially his interest in botany was focused on trees working for three years in the arboretum of the university he graduated in december 1978 and continued his postgraduate study at the university of florida after working for two years at the marie selby botanical gardens in sarasota florida where his interest in amaryllidaceae was stimulated his masters thesis in 1983 was on the taxonomy of the genus eucharis he continued with the same subject in his doctoral studies producing his thesis entitled a monograph of eucharis and caliphruria amaryllidaceae in 1986he then moved to the university of floridas fort lauderdale research and education center where he was a palm and tropical ornamental specialist as well as carrying out research on the phylogeny and taxonomy of the amaryllidaceae he bred hippeastrum and other ornamental species in 1998 the international bulb society awarded him the herbert medal in recognition of his contributions to the knowledge of bulbous plantssince 1999 he has been located at the national germplasm repository of the united states department of agricultureagricultural research service usdaars based in miami working on the conservation genetics systematics characterization and breeding of species of subtropical and tropical ornamentals in 2005 the american society of plant taxonomists awarded him the peter raven award for scientific outreachmeerow has published over 150 scientific papers numerous magazine and university extension articles and is the author or coauthor of three popular books on palms