History

The InterAmerican Society for Tropical Horticulture (ISTH) was founded in 1951 in the United States, as the Caribbean Group of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS). During the initial period (1951-1957) were memorable the efforts of Wilson Popenoe, since he was the Society’s first Secretary-Treasurer-Executive. For several years the personal dedication of others important selfless volunteers, such as Ernesto H. Cásseres (1958-1970), Carlos Enrique Fernandez (1972-1976), Franklin W. Martin (1977-1983), Carl W. Campbell (1984-1997), and Richard J. Campbell (1998-2008), also was decisive to existence and maintenance of the group as a scientific society.

At the beginning, founders aimed to establish a party of countries from the Caribbean Region to reunite more often not only to exchange information on tropical horticultural crops (fruits, vegetables and ornamentals), but also to disseminate it through newsletters and a scientific journal. As time passed and people from other countries joined in, the name was changed to American Society for Horticultural Science – Tropical Region, in 1966. Another change happened in 1986, when, for legal reasons, the group was separated from the ASHS adopting its current name. In 2010, ISTH joined the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) through a Memorandum of Understating that allows with one annual membership to be member of both societies.

The group is, ever since, the only tropical American scientific society dedicated to gather and spread information on tropical horticultural production.