Carl Clawson Epling (15 April 1894 – 17 November 1968) was an 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 ...

and taxonomist. He is best known for being the major authority on the

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...

(mint family) of the Americas from the 1920s to the 1960s. In his later years he also developed an interest in genetics. University of California: In Memoriam − Carl Clawson Epling, Botany: UC Los Angeles
December 1970.

History

Epling obtained his B.A. from the College of Agriculture at University of California, Berkeley in 1921. He received his M.A. in 1923 and Ph.D. in 1924 from Washington University, with a dissertation on the genus '' Monardella''. Find A Grave Memorial.com: Dr Carl Clawson Epling (1894-1968)
/ref> Epling's first academic position was as an instructor in botany at Oregon State College in 1921-22. He became staff member at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1924. In 1941, he was made a faculty research lecturer at UCLA. He was honored by UCLA with an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1963. He retired from UCLA in 1965. From 1944 until his retirement, he held the title of systematist in the

University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Agricultural Experiment Station. He was also a researcher in population genetics. At the time of his death he was studying the flora of Ecuadorian rain forests. Carl Clawson Epling died in Santa Monica, in 1968.

Works

Epling published more than one hundred scientific works ranging from monographs to contributions to local floras, and described numerous

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

and species new to science—including the well known psychoactive ''

Salvia divinorum ''Salvia divinorum'' (Latin: "sage of the diviners"; also called ska maría pastora, seer's sage, yerba de la pastora, magic mint or simply salvia) is a plant species with transient psychoactive properties when its leaves are consumed by che ...

''.

Citation

Honours

In 2012, the genus name of '' Eplingiella'' was named in his honour.

Personal

Epling was born in Waverly, Illinois, son of Allen Judson Epling and Inez S. Epling. He was married to Ruth Persons Epling, they had 2 children; Elizabeth and anthropologist Philip Judson Epling (1931-1973).

References