Ira Loren Wiggins (1 January 1899 – 28 November 1987) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, Curator of the Dudley Herbarium, and Director of the Natural History Museum (1940–1962) at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He was a Stanford faculty member from 1929 until his retirement in 1964. He was the first recipient of the Fellow's Medal of the California Academy of Sciences. His ''Flora of Baja California'' is a standard work on the botany of the Baja peninsula and on the many islands of the Gulf of California. Wiggins attended

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is ...

as an undergraduate and received his M.A. at Stanford, studying with

LeRoy Abrams LeRoy Abrams (1874–1956) was an American botanist and writer. He was a Professor of Botany at Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research un ...

, and where he won a university fellowship in botany in 1927. He earned his PhD in 1930 with a thesis on the flora of San Diego County. Wiggins made several botanical collecting trips to the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

, collaborating with Forrest Shreve in a description of the vegetation and flora of the North American Sonoran Desert including portions of Arizona, New Mexico, California, Sonora (Mexican State), Baja California Sur, and

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. He published extensively on the floras of North American desert landscapes, the flora of the Arctic Slope of Alaska, and flora of the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

. Starting in May 1944, Wiggins spent nine months in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

as part of the Mision de Cinchona. He was appointed head of

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

's Arctic research laboratory in

Point Barrow Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, northeast of Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow). It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at , south of the North Pole. (The northe ...

, Alaska in 1950.

Legacy

Wiggins is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of lizards, ''

Phrynosoma wigginsi The Cedros Island horned lizard (''Phrynosoma cerroense'') is a horned lizard species native to Cedros Island in Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin A ...

'' and '' Xantusia wigginsi''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Wiggins", p. 285).

Selected publications

*A Flora of the Alaskan Arctic Slope; Ira Loren Wiggins & John Thomas Hunter (1962) *Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert; Ira Loren Wiggins & Forrest Shreve (1964) *Flora of the Galapagos Islands; Ira Loren Wiggins & Duncan Macnair Porter; Stanford University Press (1971) *Flora of Baja California; Ira Loren Wiggins (1980)

References

External links

Guide to the Ira L. Wiggins PapersIra L. Wiggins: An Oral History
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program, 1980. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiggins, Ira Loren Directors of museums in the United States 1899 births 1987 deaths Botanists active in California People associated with the California Academy of Sciences Occidental College alumni Stanford University alumni Botanists with author abbreviations Scientists from Madison, Wisconsin Scientists from California 20th-century American botanists