Lytton J. Musselman, Eminent Scholar and the Mary Payne Hogan Professor of Botany at Old Dominion University, was recognized for his professional and public service at the annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists.

Musselman was presented with the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society's top honor, the Bartholomew Award, at its meeting last week in Concord, North Carolina.

The Association of Southeastern Biologists has promoted biology through research and education for more than 75 years.

Musselman was honored for exemplifying the dedication to service, botany and the public demonstrated by Elizabeth Ann Bartholomew, the association's secretary from 1946 to 1981. The association gives the annual award in memory of her untiring service to the public, to plant systematics and to the organization.

Musselman was praised for his positive influence on countless students and his numerous contributions to the field of botany.

Musselman, who has mentored more than 20 master's and four Ph.D. students, has written six books, six monographs and edited 11 volumes. He is an expert on plants of the Bible and the flora of Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.

He has won three Fulbright Scholar Awards and hosted three Fulbright Scholars to his lab. Musselman also has made significant contributions to southeastern and southern Appalachian botany, particularly regarding parasitic plants, on which he is a leading international authority.

At the same meeting, Musselman's Ph.D. student Peter Schafran won the association's award for outstanding student presentation.

Schafran's presentation, "Towards a phylogeny of isoetes (or quillworts) in the Southeastern United States," demonstrated that there has been more interbreeding between the ancient species than was previously known.