Florence Signaigo Wagner

Florence Signaigo Wagner (February 18, 1919 – October 21, 2019) was an American botanist who served as president of the American Fern Society.

Florence Signaigo Wagner
Born
Florence Signaigo

(1919-02-18)February 18, 1919
DiedOctober 21, 2019(2019-10-21) (aged 100)
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States of America
Alma materCollege of William & Mary
University of Michigan
University of California, Berkeley
Known forresearch into the evolution and classification of ferns
SpouseWarren Wagner, Jr. (1920–2000)
ChildrenMargaret and Warren
Scientific career
Fieldsbotany
InstitutionsUniversity of Michigan

Biography

Florence Signaigo was born in Birmingham, Michigan, on February 18, 1919 and grew up in Highland Park. Her first botanical interest focused on red algae.[1][2][3]

She studied at the College of William & Mary (B.A. Philosophy), and the University of Michigan (M.A. Latin American studies), before receiving a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation, under the phycologist George Frederik Papenfuss, was titled, Contributions to the Morphology of the Delesseriaceae. Florence Signaigo Wagner" (1954).[4] 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).[1][3]

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, 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.[5] 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.[6]

Offices held

She held many offices in university, regional, and national societies including Chair of the Pteridological Section of the Botanical Society of America (1982-1984) and Vice-President (1984-1985) and then President (1986-1987) of the American Fern Society.[1][3]

Personal life

She married the botanist Warren "Herb" Wagner, Jr. (1920–2000), who also became her work partner and co-author,[1][3][7] and they had two children, Margaret and Warren.[8] She died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 21, 2019.[3][6]

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
  1. Reznicek, Tony (21 October 2020). "In memoriam: Florence Wagner, Research Scientist | U-M LSA University of Michigan Herbarium". lsa.umich.edu. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  2. Reznicek, A.A. (2020-02-17). "Florence Signaigo Wagner 1919–2019". American Fern Journal. 110 (1): 1. doi:10.1640/0002-8444-110.1.1. ISSN 0002-8444. S2CID 211228466.
  3. "Florence Wagner Obituary (1919 - 2019) - Ann Arbor, MI - Ann Arbor News". 2021-09-23. Archived from the original on 2021-09-23. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  4. Swanson, C. P. (1 June 1955). "Contributions to the Morphology of the Delesseriaceae. Florence Signaigo Wagner". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 30 (2): 172. doi:10.1086/400807. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  5. "Wagner, Florence Signaigo (1919-)". plants.jstor.org. 19 April 2013. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  6. "Florence Wagner 1919 - 2019". mlive.com. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  7. Sciences, National Academy of (2003-12-07). Biographical Memoirs: Volume 83. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-08699-8.
  8. "Botanical Electronic News". www.ou.edu. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  9. International Plant Names Index.  F.S.Wagner.
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