Lesson 12 - Alaska Geobotany Center

Henry Gleason• Student of Cowles; primarily a taxonomist,with a strong grounding in the'physiographic ecology' of Cowles. Healso conceived plant associations interms of floristic composition, but heviewed these associations blending intoeach other continuously with no discreetboundaries.• Disputed Clement's organismic approachand developed the individualistichypothesis, which stressed the importanceof species over community aspects.• He was considered a heretic and a "goodman gone wrong" from 1926 until the late1940's and early 1950's when Cain, Curtis,Whittaker and others began developingideas of continuum approach. Gleasondeveloped his views while studying theplant communities along the length of theMississippi River Valley.