Florence Signaigo Wagner (February 18, 1919 – October 21, 2019) was an American botanist who served as president of the American Fern Society.
Florence Signaigo Wagner | |
|---|---|
| Born | Florence Signaigo February 18, 1919 |
| Died | October 21, 2019 (aged 100) |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States of America |
| Alma mater | College of William & Mary University of Michigan University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | research into the evolution and classification of ferns |
| Spouse | Warren Wagner, Jr. (1920–2000) |
| Children | Margaret and Warren |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | botany |
| Institutions | University of Michigan |
Biography
Florence Signaigo was born in Birmingham, Michigan, on February 18, 1919 and grew up in Highland Park. Her first botanical interest focused on red algae.[1][2][3]
She studied at the College of William & Mary (B.A. Philosophy), and the University of Michigan (M.A. Latin American studies), before receiving a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation, under the phycologist George Frederik Papenfuss, was titled, Contributions to the Morphology of the Delesseriaceae. Florence Signaigo Wagner" (1954).[4] She graduated in 1952, and published her thesis as a paper, in which she described the new genus Marionella, named for her landlady, the Berkeley embryologist and cytologist Marion Elizabeth Stilwell Cave (1904–1995).[1][3]
After marrying a fellow graduate student, she moved with him to Michigan in 1951 and they both joined the University of Michigan.
She was employed as a botanist in Tunja, Colombia, and at the University of Michigan as a research scientist for more than five decades. Although known as a researcher, she also undertook field work collecting specimens.[5] Her international identifier on the International Plant Names Index is 31701-1. As is usual in botany, she is listed as an abbreviation rather than using her full name when quoted or mentioned: F.S. Wagner.[6]
Offices held
She held many offices in university, regional, and national societies including Chair of the Pteridological Section of the Botanical Society of America (1982-1984) and Vice-President (1984-1985) and then President (1986-1987) of the American Fern Society.[1][3]
Personal life
She married the botanist Warren "Herb" Wagner, Jr. (1920–2000), who also became her work partner and co-author,[1][3][7] and they had two children, Margaret and Warren.[8] She died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 21, 2019.[3][6]
Selected publications
Wagner published dozens of scientific papers.
- Wagner, F. S. (1954). Contributions to the morphology of the Delesseriaceae. Univ. Calif. Publs Bot., 27, 279-346.
- Wagner, F. S. (1955). CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MORPHOLOGY. University of California Publications in Botany, 7, 279.
- Wagner, W. H., Wagner, F. S., Sutton, R. G., Rukavina, N. A., Towle, E. L., Tanghe, L. J., & Riggsby, E. D. (1965). Rochester area log ferns (Dryopteris celsa) and their hybrids. Rochester Academy of Science.
- Wagner, W. H., & Wagner, F. S. (1966). Pteridophytes of the Mountain Lake Area Giles Co., Virginia: Biosystematic Studies 1964-1965.
- Wagner, W. H., & Wagner, F. S. (1975). A hybrid polypody from the New World tropics.