John Torrey and the Torrey Botanical Society: Two hundred years studying the flora of the New York City region

The flora of the New York City region has been studied for more than 200 years by John Torrey (1796–1873) and the Torrey Botanical Society, making it the longest continuous floristic study in the New World. Torrey studied and collected plants from the New York City region in the early 1800s, and his Catalogue was published in 1819. Additional reports by Torrey on the local flora were published in the 1820s and in his state flora in 1843. During the 1850s Torrey and a group of plant collectors from New York City studied the local flora, and in 1867 the Torrey Botanical Club was founded with John Torrey serving as the first president. After Torrey’s death in 1873, Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859–1934) served as chairman of the Club’s Local Flora Committee for 47 years. The committee was inactive from 1947 to 1959, but individual Club members continued to report on the local flora in the Club’s journals. A revival in local floristic studies began in 1960 but waxed and waned until around 1990, when floristic studies in the Torrey Range surged. Club members continue researching, studying, and preparing specimens of and reporting on the plants that occur in the New York City region.