Florence Signaigo Wagner (February 18, 1919 – October 21, 2019) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

who served as president 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 ...

Biography

Florence Signaigo was born in

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor (M-1 (Michigan highway), M-1). As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 censu ...

, on February 18, 1919 and grew up in Highland Park. Her first botanical interest focused on

red algae Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), make up one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta comprises one of the largest Phylum, phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 recognized species within over 900 Genus, genera amidst ongoing taxon ...

. She studied at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public university, public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III of England, William III and Queen ...

(BA Philosophy), and the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

(MA Latin American studies), before receiving a PhD from 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 ...

. Her doctoral dissertation, under the phycologist

George Frederik Papenfuss George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorg ...

, was titled, ''Contributions to the Morphology of the Delesseriaceae''. Florence Signaigo Wagner" (1954). 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). 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 Tunja () is a municipality and city on the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, in the region known as the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, 130 km northeast of Bogotá. In 2018 the municipality had a population of 172,548. It is the capital of B ...

, 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. 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.

Offices held

She held many offices in university, regional, and national societies including Chair of the Pteridological Section 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 soc ...

(1982-1984) and Vice-President (1984-1985) and then President (1986-1987) of the

Personal life

She married the botanist Warren "Herb" Wagner, Jr. (1920–2000), who also became her work partner and co-author, and they had two children, Margaret and Warren. She died in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, on October 21, 2019.

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''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Florence Signaigo 1919 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American botanists American women botanists College of William & Mary alumni University of Michigan alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American women centenarians People from Birmingham, Michigan American pteridologists