Background

Willis Linn Jepson was born on August 19, 1867, on Little Oak Ranch in Vacaville, California, United States. He was the son of William and Martha Potts Jepson, originally from New England.

Education

Early in his schooling Jepson was fascinated by the identification of plants through keys in Volney Rattan’s local floras. On visits to the California Academy of Sciences, he was cordially received by Albert Kellogg. His student years at the University of California at Berkeley coincided with the professorship of Edward Lee Greene, whose influence on Jepson was deep and lasting.

Jepson took his bachelor’s (1889) and doctor’s (1899) degrees at Berkeley, interspersed with terms at Cornell (1895) and Harvard (1896-1897). His association at Harvard with the conservative taxonomist Benjamin L. Robinson was critical. Jepson’s teaching was enriched by field excursions to redwood wilderness, mountains, and deserts.

Career

Jepson was made an assistant professor in 1899, an associate professor in 1911, a professor in 1918, and a professor emeritus in 1937. He was a Professor of Botany at Berkeley for four decades, thus his entire career was identified with the University of California.

Jepson’s collections and voluminous notes, totaling nearly sixty closely written field books, provided the data for his Trees of California (1909), Silva of California (1910), and Manual of the Flowering Plants of California (1925). The latter, the leading book in its field, described 4,019 species and was extensively illustrated with line drawings by closely supervised artists. A Flora of California, monographic documentation to the Manual, with references, notes on types, citations of supporting specimens, and ecological notes, shows Jepson the taxonomist at his best.

Jepson studied the significance of revegetation after fire, rainpool ecology, endemism, and floristic provinces. He founded the California Botanical Society in 1913, was a founder and spokesman for the Save-the-Redwoods League, and implemented the Point Lobos Reserve, near Monterey.

Achievements

• Willis Linn Jepson was California's most distinguished early botanist, botanical writer, and conservationist. He is often called the “high priest of the California Flora.” His specimens, extensive archives and fieldbooks are housed in the University and Jepson Herbaria libraries and archives. Many honors came to Jepson during his long and productive lifetime, and commemorations afterwards.
  
  The Saxifragaceae genus Jepsonia, and host of plant species botanical and common names, are named after him in commemoration.
  
  The Jepson Herbarium at the University of California, Berkeley is named for him.
  
  The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California is named in his honor.
  
  Willis Jepson Middle School in Vacaville, California is named after him.

Works

More photos

• book

  • California Tanbark Oak 1911
  • Manual of the Flowering Plants of California 1925
  • The Trees of California 1923
  • A flora of California 1909
  • A Flora of Western Middle California 1901
  • A Flora of the Economic Plants of California for Agricultural Students 1924
  • The trees of California 1909
  • Erythea
  • A School Flora for the Pacific Coast 1906

Views

Although Jepson never shrank from the defense of Greene’s frailties, he disavowed Greene’s views on the fixity of species.

Membership

Jepson founded the California Botanical Society, and was its president in 1913-1915. He was a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences (1918-1929), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Society of Arts, and American Geographical Society, and Foreign member of the Société Linnéenne de Lyon and the National Botanical Society of Czechoslovakia. He was also life member of the American Genetic Association; and member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Botanical Society of America, Society of Foresters, Washington Academy of Sciences, Western Society of Naturalists, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

• California Botanical Society , United States

• California Academy of Sciences , United States

• American Academy of Arts and Sciences , United States

• Royal Society of Arts , United States

• American Geographical Society , United States

• Société Linnéenne de Lyon , France

• National Botanical Society , Czechoslovakia

• American Genetic Association , United States

• American Society of Plant Taxonomists , United States

• Botanical Society of America , United States

• Society of Foresters , United States

• Washington Academy of Sciences , United States

• Western Society of Naturalists , United States

• Phi Beta Kappa , United States

• Sigma Xi , United States

Personality

Jepson's personality ranged from that of charming host to implacable hermit. He delighted in esoteric allusion - designating a plant collected by Katherine Brandegee, whom he intensely disliked, as “Viper Parsnip” - in the dramatic, and in rigorous tests of loyalty.

Connections

Jepson never married.

Father:

William Jepson

Mother:

Martha Potts Jepson

mentor:

Edward Lee Greene

fellow student:

Benjamin Lincoln Robinson

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7
  1973