Robert Ornduff (1932–2000) 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 ...

. He was Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria, Director of the University of California Botanical Garden, Executive Director of the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, and Chair of the (former) Department of Botany and Professor of Integrative Biology at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

. Botanist Phyllis M. Faber said of him following his death, "his extensive knowledge and love of the California flora remains unmatched."''Introduction to California Plant Life''
Robert Ornduff, Phyllis M. Faber, Todd Keeler-Wolf; 2003 revised ed.; Preface, p. x He was a specialist in the systematics of various plant groups in California, particularly the

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

, Menyanthaceae, and Limnanthaceae. He contributed to the treatments of four families in the 1993 Jepson Manual. He also worked on the population biology of cycads,

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities o ...

, and in biographical research on Charles Darwin historic figures in botanical exploration.Robert Ornduff, University of California Berkeley website
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ornduff, Robert American botanical writers American taxonomists Biogeographers 1932 births 2000 deaths Botanists active in California University of California, Berkeley administrators Writers from California Scientists from California 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American botanists American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American academics