Edward Lee Greene: The Botanical Revolutionary of the American West

August 20, 1843

Today is the birthday of Edward Lee Greene, who was born on this day in 1843, my darling garden enthusiasts.

Greene performed yeoman's work when it came to the plants of the American West, naming or describing or even re-describing over 4,400 species.

Such dedication deserves our collective swoon, does it not, my fellow flower-lovers?

Before Greene made his way west, he reached out to Asa Gray of Cambridge and George Englemann of St. Louis at the Missouri Botanic Garden. They gave him good counsel, and in 1870, he started traveling to Colorado, California, Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona. He eventually settled in Berkeley as a church rector.

In the early 1880s, an exciting thing happened: he left the episcopal church, and he became a Catholic!

While he was becoming Catholic, Greene began lecturing at the University of California, where he became the curator of the herbarium. Picture him there, dear she-shed besties, surrounded by pressed specimens, his fingers delicately arranging the taxonomic treasures of the West.

When he and the University's President didn't agree on nomenclature for the plants—oh, the drama that unfolds in academic gardens!—he ended up accepting a job at Catholic University in Washington DC, where he worked until 1904.

At that point, he ended up going to the Smithsonian. When he was there, he transferred his herbarium and published his masterpiece called Landmarks of Botanical History Part One.

Part Two was never completed, my cherished garden companions. Isn't that always the way with brilliant minds?

They leave us wanting more, like a perfect garden with one empty bed waiting to be filled.

Greene's legacy lives on in the countless Western wildflowers that bear his taxonomic touch. Next time you're wandering through a meadow in California or Colorado, remember this botanical revolutionary who catalogued our beloved flora with such devotion.

So today, as you tend to your early spring plantings, whisper a little thank you to Edward Lee Greene, who helped us name the beauty that surrounds us.