The Guadalajara Reporter

Indefatigable botanist collects 10,500 plants in 40-plus years

On September 26, 150 people gathered at the Universidad de Guadalajara’s Alberto Navarro Auditorium to pay tribute to Dr. Miguel Cházaro, a legend among Mexico’s botanists. After 25 years as a UdG professor, Jalisco’s best-known botanist was “retiring” to his native Veracruz, where, attested one of his colleagues, “he’ll probably keep right on collecting for another 25 years.”

Cházaro started out studying biology, but in 1973 began collecting plants in Veracruz and has never stopped to this day. In 1975 he began a study of the huizache tree (a kind of acacia). Later he turned his attention to parasitic plants, succulents and cacti. He studied for his Masters degree at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1984 to 1986, after which he joined the UdG.

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