Warren Herbert Wagner Jr. (August 29, 1920 – January 8, 2000) was an eminent American botanist who was trained at Berkeley with E.B. Copeland and lived most of his professional career in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

History

Wagner was instructed in the ways of plant microphotograph and embryology by Marion S. Cave. Wagner was a longtime faculty member at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He was most respected among his colleagues and students for his genius in discerning and articulating the differences in form between plant species in the context of their variation with environmental factors. He developed, in the early 1960s, the first algorithm for discerning

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

relationships among species based upon their respective character states observed over a set of characters. This work was honored by James Farris and Arnold Kluge in their later appellation of related algorithms as "Wagner parsimony." Wagner became a

pteridologist #REDIRECTFern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pter ...

later in life, specializing in

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s, especially the Botrychiaceae. Having served in the U.S. Military in the Pacific Theater in World War II, he maintained a lifelong interest in the diversity and origin of the ferns of Hawaii. Working with his wife Florence Signaigo Wagner, an accomplished

cytologist Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

, he resolved the relationships of an array of polyploid complexes in North American ferns, first the Appalachian trio of ''

Asplenium ''Asplenium'' is a genus of about 700 species of ferns, often treated as the only genus in the family Aspleniaceae, though other authors consider '' Hymenasplenium'' separate, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, a different ...

'' species, then in ''

Dryopteris :''The moth genus ''Dryopteris'' is now considered a junior synonym of '' Oreta. ''Dryopteris'' , commonly called the wood ferns, male ferns (referring in particular to '' Dryopteris filix-mas''), or buckler ferns, is a fern genus in the family D ...

'' and ''

Polystichum ''Polystichum'' is a genus of ferns in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Dryopteridoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). The genus has about 500 species and has a cosmopolitan distribution. Th ...

''. He was President of the Botanical Society of America in 1977. He was elected to the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 1985. Apparently among modern

systematists, Wagner is alone in having been mentioned in a

Hollywood film The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...

− '' A New Leaf'', starring Elaine May and Walter Matthau.

Taxonomist

Note: not to be confused with the American botanist Warren L. Wagner (b.1950) Botany.si.edu: Warren L. Wagner (1950- )
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References

External links

* University of Michigan Herbariumbr>website

Donald R. Farrar, "Warren H. Wagner, Jr.", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2003)
1920 births 2000 deaths American taxonomists Pteridologists Botanists active in North America Botanists with author abbreviations University of Michigan faculty Botanical Society of America Scientists from Michigan 20th-century American botanists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American military personnel of World War II {{US-botanist-stub