António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva (Porto, March 13, 1912 – Lisbon, September 28, 1992), often referred to as A.R.
Pinto da Silva or P.
Silva, was a Portuguese botanist who distinguished himself as a taxonomist and phytosociologist when he collaborated with Swiss botanist Josias Braun-Blanquet and also with Pierre Dansereau.
His studies on taxonomy and floristic yielded a substantial number of new taxa and a better knowledge about many plants and its nomenclature.
He organized the Estação Agronómica Nacional's (National Agronomic Station) herbarium, which he rose from 3000 to almost 100,000 entries.
He was a pioneer on ethnobotany studies in Portugal and published several contributions on vernacular nomenclature of Portuguese flora, cultivated plants and popular use of wild plants as food.
For half a century he helped archaeologists, having published numerous works on paleoethnobotany, among more than 300 articles, notes and communications published throughout his life both in Portuguese and foreign publications.