Louis Cutter Wheeler, botanist and professor at the University of Southern California, was an authority on the Euphorbiaceae. He collected plants in many parts of the United States and in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Wheeler was born in La Verne, California, where his father farmed citrus fruit. It was the appearance of rattlesnake weed (Euphorbia albomarginata Torr. & A.Gray) on the family farm each summer that first inspired Wheeler's interest in Euphorbia. His interest in botany continued through his youth and in 1931 he enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, to study systematic botany under Prof. Carl Epling.

In 1933 Wheeler went on to attend Claremont Graduate School, where he was guided in his studies by Prof. Phil Munz. He received his master's degree in 1934 and spent a period working for the U.S. Forest Service in the Siskiyou and San Gabriel Mountains, then began work on his doctorate at Harvard in 1936. Specialising in the Euphorbiaceae by this time, he published a revision of Euphorbia subgenus Chamaesyce in Canada and the U.S. (except for Florida), giving typifications of 49 taxa. He produced more than 20 other papers between 1934 and 1939, when he was awarded his PhD.

Wheeler spent 1939-1945 moving between several universities as a botany instructor and research assistant, before accepting a role at the University of Southern California. Here he advanced through the academic ranks from assistant professor of botany to full professor, retiring from this post in 1975.

It was in 1969 that his association with Ceylon began as Wheeler was recruited to collaborate on the Flora of Ceylon project, providing an account of the Euphorbiaceae. This led to four visits to the island, where he was disappointed not to be able to carry a gun for protection against dangers he believed he would encounter, such as stampeding elephants. The most alarming occurrence, in reality, was when locals threw cobras into his compound.

Wheeler married Leota Brice in 1935, with whom he had two daughters. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow and sometime president of the Southern Californian Academy of Sciences. He died of cancer in August 1980.

Sources:
J. Ewan, 1983, "Louis Cutter Wheeler (1910-1980) in California and Ceylon", Taxon, 32(4): 545-548.