Edwin Bingham Copeland (September 30, 1873 – March 16, 1964) was an American botanist and agriculturist. He is known for founding the

University of the Philippines College of Agriculture A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

Los Baños, Laguna Los Baños (IPA: Help:IPA/Tagalog, ɔs bɐˈɲɔs, officially the Municipality of Los Baños (), colloquially 'elbi' or simply LB, is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Laguna (province ...

and for being one of the America's leading pteridologists (one who studies ferns).

Life

In 1903, he and his family moved to the Philippines, where he worked as a Systematic Botanist for the Bureau of Science. Wagner, W.H. Jr. 1964
Edwin Bingham Copeland (1873–1964) and his contributions to Pteridology
American Fern Journal 54(4): 177–188. In 1909, he founded the

, now part of the

University of the Philippines Los Baños The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB; ), also referred to as UP Los Baños or colloquially as Elbi (), is a public research university primarily located in the towns of Los Baños and Bay in the province of Laguna, some 65 kilo ...

, and served as its dean and also as a professor of

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tr ...

for eight years (1909–1917). In 1917, he returned to the United States and was a leading rice grower in

Chico, California Chico ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 United Sta ...

. In 1927, he began work as an Associate Curator at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. In 1931, he worked for the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines, retiring in 1935. After retiring he returned to UC Berkeley and became a permanent Research Associate of the Department of Biology of the University of California. He is best known among American botanists for this latter period at UC. He was elected an Honorary Member of the

American Fern Society The American Fern Society was founded in 1893. Today, it has more than 1,000 members around the world, with various local chapters. Among its deceased members, perhaps the most famous is Oliver Sacks, who became a member in 1993. Willard N. Clut ...

in 1948. During his career he described 35 new

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and some 600 new species of

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

s. His personal

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

totaled approximately 25,000 species and is now at the

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 vascul ...

.Collections
, University of Michigan Herbarium. He wrote numerous articles and several books including "Elements of Philippine Agriculture" (1908), "The Coconut" (three editions, 1914, 1921, and 1931), "Rice" (1924), "Fern" (1964) and "Natural Conduct" (1928), a book on practical ethics. He issued the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

''Pteridophyta Philippinensia exsiccata'' (c. 1920). In a letter during his final months, a friend C.V. Morton wrote, "You have the consolation of knowing that your name is in constant use by fern students the world over." The fungus genus ''

Copelandia ''Copelandia'' is a now deprecated genus of mushrooms consisting of at least 12 species. Many American mycologists previously placed members of '' Panaeolus'' which stain blue into ''Copelandia'', whilst European mycologists generally used the n ...

'' was named after him. On August 8, 1899, Copeland and partner E. N. Henderson were the first climbers known to reach summit of

Junction Peak Junction Peak is a thirteener in the Sierra Nevada. Joseph Nisbet LeConte chose this name in 1896, noting that it marks the point where the Sierra Crest crosses the water divide of the Kern and Kings rivers. Today it also is the boundary betwe ...

, a

thirteener In mountaineering in the United States, a thirteener (abbreviated 13er) is a mountain that exceeds above mean sea level, similar to the more familiar "fourteeners," which exceed . In most instances, "thirteeners" refers only to those peaks betwe ...

in the

Sierra Nevada mountains The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

of California. His father was the zoologist Herbert Edson Copeland (1849–1876) and he was the father of biologist

Herbert Copeland Herbert Copeland may refer to: * Herbert Copeland (biologist) (1902–1968), American biologist * Herbert Copeland (murderer) (1875–1925), American murderer and self-confessed serial killer {{hndis, Copeland, Herbert ...

. He was married to Ethel Faulkner Copeland.

Legacy

The following species of plants are named after him: * ''

Saurauia copelandii ''Saurauia copelandii'' is a species of plant in the Actinidiaceae family. It is native to the Philippines. Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer, the American botanist who first formally described the species, named it in honor of Edwin Copeland, another A ...

'' Elmer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Edwin 1873 births 1964 deaths American pteridologists American people in the American Philippines Botanists active in the Philippines People from Monroe, Wisconsin American botanists Sierra Club people American mountain climbers Stanford University alumni University of Halle alumni History of the Sierra Nevada (United States) University of the Philippines Los Baños People from Chico, California