LeRoy Abrams


LeRoy Abrams was an American botanist, naturalist, and author. He taught as a Professor at Stanford University. He wrote his first book, Flora of Los Angeles and Vicinity which occurred in 3 editions, all written while at Stanford University. He edited and wrote most of the three volumes of the four-volume Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States, with the final fourth volume edited posthumously by Roxanna Ferris.. He asked additional botanists, including his graduate students to assist him in writing portions of the 3 volumes of this Flora. For example, Ira Wiggins and Carl Wolf wrote the Cactus Family section, which included the large opuntiad genus.

Life

Abrams was born in Sheffield, Iowa on October 1, 1874. However, his youth, including his teen years, were lived in southern California, where he learned the natural history, flora and fauna, especially in San Diego and later in Los Angeles, and where he briefly attended USC as an undergraduate freshman student. He graduated from Stanford University in 1899, pursuing postgraduate studies there, until 1904, resulting in writing his first book, A Flora of Los Angeles and Vicinity, and Masters Degree. Five years later, Abrams completed a PhD in New York at Columbia University in 1910, which also focused the same geographic region of Los Angeles and southern California as his earlier Flora, but this time, he focused on investigating the phytogeography of trees and shrubs. He became assistant professor of botany at Stanford in 1906, and became full professor in 1920. He was also curator of the Dudley Herbarium.
He and his wife had a home overlooking the Santa Clara Valley. Their only child, a daughter, predeceased him.
Abrams is commemorated in the specific epithet abramsii.