Willis Linn Jepson (August 19, 1867 – November 7, 1946) was an early California

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 ...

, conservationist, and writer.

Career

Born at Little Oak Ranch near

Vacaville, California Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it ...

, Jepson became interested in

botany 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 w ...

as a boy and explored the adjacent

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. He came in contact with various botanists before he entered college. In 1892, at the age of 25, Jepson,

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

, and

Warren Olney Warren Olney, Sr. (March 11, 1841 – June 2, 1921) was an American lawyer, conservationist, and politician, in California. He was a founding member, alongside John Muir and the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson of the University o ...

formed the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

, in Olney's San Francisco law office. From 1895 to 1898, Jepson served as instructor in Botany and carried on research at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

(1895), and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1896–1897). He received his Ph.D. at Berkeley in 1899. He was made assistant professor in 1899, associate professor in 1911, professor in 1918, and professor emeritus in 1937. He was a Professor of Botany at UC Berkeley for four decades, thus his entire career was identified with the University of California. Jepson founded 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 ...

and served as its president from 1913 to 1915; he also worked as councilor of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

Legacy

Many honors and commemorations came to Jepson during his lifetime and as well as posthumously: * He was granted a fellowship to the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, and

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

* Member of the

American Genetic Association The American Genetic Association (AGA) is a USA-based professional scientific organization dedicated to the study of genetics and genomics which was founded as the American Breeders' Association in 1903. The association has published the ''Journa ...

American Society of Plant Taxonomists The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) is a botanical organization formed in 1935 to "foster, encourage, and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy, to include those areas and fields of study that contribute to and b ...

Botanical Society of America The Botanical Society of America (BSA) represents professional and amateur botanists, researchers, educators and students in over 80 countries of the world. It functions as a United States nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership society. History The soci ...

Society of American Foresters The Society of American Foresters (SAF) is a professional organization representing the forestry industry in the United States. Its mission statement declares that it seeks to "advance the science, education, and practice of forestry; to enhance t ...

, Washington Academy of Sciences, Western Society of Naturalists,

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

, and

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

* Foreign member of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

, Société linnéenne de Lyon, and Czechoslovak Botanical Society * Colleagues at UC Berkeley honored him with the Faculty Research Lectureship in 1934 * The

Saxifragaceae Saxifragaceae is a family of herbaceous perennial flowering plants, within the core eudicot order Saxifragales. The taxonomy of the family has been greatly revised and the scope much reduced in the era of molecular phylogenetic analysis. The f ...

genus '' Jepsonia'' and its species are named after him * The

Jepson Herbarium The University and Jepson Herbaria are two herbaria that share a joint facility at the University of California, Berkeley holding over 2,200,000 botanical specimens, the largest such collection on the US West Coast. These botanical natural histo ...

at UC Berkeley is named for him * ''

The Jepson Manual ''The Jepson Manual'' is a flora of the vascular plants that are either native to or naturalized in California. Botanists often refer to the book simply as ''Jepson''. It is produced by the University and Jepson Herbaria, of the University of Cali ...

'' is named in his honor * California's

Jepson Peak Jepson Peak is a summit, west of San Gorgonio Mountain, in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. It is the second highest summit in Southern California, but most authors would not rank this peak because it has less than of prominence and does not qualify ...

Mount Jepson Mount Jepson is a 13,390-foot-elevation (4,081 meter) summit located on the shared boundary of Fresno County and Inyo County in California, United States. Description The peak is set on the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the ...

, and Jepson Prairie are named after him * The oldest known living

laurel tree Laurel is part of the English common name of many trees and other plants, particularly those of the laurel family (''Lauraceae''). Most laurels are highly poisonous. Plants called "laurel" include:See article for additional common names. * Alexan ...

in California is named after him."https://parks.smcgov.org/what-see-crystal-springs-trail What to See on Crystal Springs Trail." San Mateo County. Accessed November 28, 2021.

Publications

Jepson wrote at least 11 books during his lifetime, with two focused on California's trees. His works include ''A Flora of California'' (1909), ''The Trees of California'' (1909); and the major ''A Manual of the Flowering Plants of California'' (1925), predecessor of ''

'' (1993). * *

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jepson, Willis Linn 19th-century American botanists 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American botanists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 1867 births 1946 deaths Activists from California American botanical writers American conservationists American information and reference writers American male non-fiction writers American non-fiction environmental writers American taxonomists Botanists active in California Botanists active in North America Cornell University faculty Harvard University staff People from Vacaville, California Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area Sierra Club people University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty