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

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, Curator of the

Dudley Herbarium The Dudley Herbarium was the herbarium or plant specimen collection of the Stanford University Natural History Museum and the former Division of Systematic Biology of the Department of Biology, at Stanford University in California.The Dudley Herba ...

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

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. 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. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

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

LeRoy Abrams LeRoy Abrams (1874–1956) was an American botanist and author. He was a Professor of Botany at Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, Californi ...

, 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 ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion 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 ...

, collaborating with

Forrest Shreve Forrest Shreve (July 8, 1878 – July 19, 1950) was an internationally known American botanist. His professional career was devoted to the study of the distribution of vegetation as determined by soil and climate conditions. His contributions to t ...

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 (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. He published extensively on the floras of North American desert landscapes, the flora of the Arctic Slope of Alaska, and flora of the Galapagos Islands. Starting in May 1944, Wiggins spent nine months in

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

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

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

'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 Utqiaġvik (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'' 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 John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

(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