Warren Herbert Wagner Jr. (August 29, 1920 – January 8, 2000) was an eminent 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 ...

who was trained at Berkeley with E.B. Copeland and lived most of his professional career in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

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 Arnold G. Kluge (born 1935) is professor emeritus of zoology and curator emeritus of amphibians and reptiles at the University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology. Kluge authored over 140 journal articles. He served as past president of the Willi Henn ...

in their later appellation of related algorithms as "Wagner

parsimony Parsimony refers to the quality of economy or frugality in the use of resources. Parsimony may also refer to * The Law of Parsimony, or Occam's razor, a problem-solving principle ** Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics), an optimality criterion in p ...

." Wagner became a

pteridologist #REDIRECTFern 01 Ferns 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 ...

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 except t ...

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, he resolved the relationships of an array of polyploid complexes in North American ferns, first the Appalachian trio of '' Asplenium'' species, then in '' Dryopteris'' and '' Polystichum''. He was President of the

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 ...

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 Elaine Iva May (née Berlin; born April 21, 1932) is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She has received numerous awards including an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and a Tony. She made her initial impact in the 1950s with her ...

and

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), ''King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

Taxonomist

Note: not to be confused with the American botanist

Warren L. Wagner Warren Lambert Wagner (born February 8, 1950, Las Cruces, New Mexico) is an American botanist, a curator of botany, and a leading expert on Onagraceae and plants of the Pacific Islands, (with links to Wagner's articles and books) especially plants ...

(b.1950) Botany.si.edu: Warren L. Wagner (1950- )
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References

External links

University of Michigan Herbarium The University of Michigan Herbarium is the herbarium of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. One of the most-extensive botanical collections in the world, the herbarium has some 1.7 million specimens of vascu ...

br>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