Jonathan Deininger Sauer (July 16, 1918, 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 ...

– May 25, 2008, in

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of the city of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of downtown Los Angeles. Throughout January 2025, the majority of Pacific Palisades was severely affected and destroyed by ...

) was a botanist and plant geographer. Jonathan D. Sauer, whose father was Carl O. Sauer, graduated in 1939 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 ...

with a B.A. in history. He then entered the graduate program in geography at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. His academic career was interrupted by WW II when he was drafted into the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. He was stationed at the Pentagon, where he worked as a weather specialist. He married in 1946 and became a graduate student in botany, studying under

Edgar Anderson Edgar Shannon Anderson (November 9, 1897 – June 18, 1969) was an American botanist. He introduced the term '' introgressive hybridization'' and his 1949 book of that title was an original and important contribution to botanical genetics. His w ...

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

. Sauer graduated there in 1950 with a Ph.D. dissertation on the grain

amaranth ''Amaranthus'' is a cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan group of more than 50 species which make up the genus of annual plant, annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some names include "prostrate pigweed" an ...

s. In 1950 he returned to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an instructor in the botany department. His research dealt with "plant taxonomy, plant geography, economic botany and plant evolution." In 1959 he became a professor at U. W. Madison with a joint appointment in the departments of botany and geography. In 1971 Sauer became a professor in the geography department of the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA), where he retired as professor emeritus. In 1946 he married Hilda Sievers (1922–2019), whom he met when they both worked at the Pentagon. They had a son, Richard (b. 1951).

Selected publications

Articles

* * (See ''

Phytolacca ''Phytolacca'' is a genus of perennial plants native to North America, South America and East Asia. Some members of the genus are known as pokeweeds or similar names such as pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot or poke sallet. Other names for species ...

''.) * * * * * * * * * * (See

Hohokam Hohokam was a culture in the Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest, North American Southwest in what is now part of south-central Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. It existed between 300 and 1500 CE, with cultural p ...

.) * (See '' Stenotaphrum''.) * *

Books

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sauer, Jonathan Deininger 1918 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American geographers 21st-century geographers 20th-century American botanists 21st-century American botanists University of California, Berkeley alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II