Milo Samuel Baker (July 19, 1868 – January 4, 1961) was an American botanist, specializing in plants of the northern coastal region of California, as well as the genus ''
Viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
''.
In 1875 Milo Samuel Baker moved with his family to Tehama County, California. After graduating from secondary school in San Jose, he became a school teacher in
Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
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 graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1895. He taught from 1901 to 1906 at San Francisco's Lowell High School. After working as a farmer and rancher in Kenwood, he was a professor of botany from 1922 to 1945 at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC). He established the North Coast Herbarium at SRJC and in 1933 donated his private collection to the Herbarium. In retirement, he continued to tend the Herbarium and at SRJC continued to teach the introductory field botany course until he was over 90. Baker Hall at SRJC is named in his honor. The herbarium that Baker established is now housed at
Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University (SSU, Sonoma State, or Sonoma) is a public university in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, California, US. It is one of the smallest members of the California State University (CSU) system. Sonoma State offers 92 Bachelor's d ...
.
He was a co-collector with
Jens Clausen
Jens Christen (Christian) Clausen (March 11, 1891 – November 22, 1969) was a Danish-American botanist, geneticist, and ecologist. He is considered a pioneer in the field of ecological and evolutionary genetics of plants.
Biography
Clausen wa ...
, Franklin P. Nutting (1876–1957), and Harrison Smith. Baker sent many botanical specimens to
Edward Lee Greene
Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...
. Baker did pioneering research on the flora of eastern Shasta, Modoc, and Lassen counties. He was president of the
California Botanical Society
The California Botanical Society was founded by Willis Linn Jepson in 1913, since when it has advanced the knowledge of botanical sciences in the Western United States
Services
The society services are: the journal ''Madroño'', published since ...
in 1952.
He married Jennie Churchill on 14 July 1897.
Cryptantha
''Cryptantha'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. They are known commonly as cat's eyes and popcorn flowers (the latter name is also used to refer to the closely related genus ''Plagiobothrys'',Hasenstab-Lehman, ...