American phycologist at the University of California. Nathaniel Gardner was born in Keokuk, Iowa, and first started out as a school teacher, working for a short while in this capacity in Iowa. Moving to Tacoma, Washington, he went into business with a family member, only to return to teaching in 1893 during the financial scare. After graduating from the normal school at Ellensburg, Washington, he gained a teaching position in Coupeville, of the same state, and began to collect plants over the following few years. Sending his specimens to the University of California Gardner asked for assistance in identifying and preserving them which marked the beginning of his long and fruitful association with W.A. Setchell, then head of the botany department. Gardner enrolled at the university with a view to learning more about marine algae and other cryptogamic plants and gained his BSc in 1900. Working as head of biology at the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles from 1906 he returned to the University of California in 1913 as assistant professor of botany. Gardner remained there, working as associate professor from 1923 until his retirement in 1934.

With the help of Setchell, Gardner developed an extensive knowledge of the marine vegetation of the Pacific coast, but he also studied freshwater algae and fungi. A dedicated collector he developed methods for cultivation in the lab and conducted practical experiments as well as observations in the field. Gardner published many works on the morphology and taxonomy of blue-green algae and brown algae, as well as the Chlorophyceae (a family of green algae) and the Rhodophyceae (the red algae). Nathaniel Gardner was married to Edith Jordan.

Sources:
H.B. Humphrey, 1961, The Makers of North American Botany: 92-93
Nathaniel Lyon Gardner (Botany: Berkeley), University of California:
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb3s200523;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00004&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere, accessed 27 January 2011.