Biography

United States botanist. Roxana Stinchfield Ferris was associated with the Dudley Herbarium at Stanford University for six decades. Born Roxana Judkins Stinchfield in Sycamore, California, she was first hired in 1913 as a student assistant by the curator LeRoy Abrams. She received her AB degree two years later and then her AM in 1916 for a thesis on Cordylanthus. After graduating, she was given a full-time permanent position, eventually advancing to assistant curator, then associate curator, and finally, in 1962, curator. Although she officially retired in 1963 she kept working at the herbarium until the early 1970s. With Abrams, she co-authored the Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States. She was also the author of three popular books, Death Valley Wildflowers, Flowers of the Point Reyes National Seashore and Shrubs of the San Francisco Bay Area. Ferris collected some 14,000 specimens in California, the Southwest, eastern Oregon, Baja California, and mainland Mexico (from Sonora to Jalisco). She is commemorated by a number of eponyms including Arenaria macradenia subsp. ferrisiae Abrams, Astragalus tener var. ferrisiae Liston, Ceanothus ferrisiae McMinn, Cordylanthus ferrisianus Pennell and Lasthenia ferrisiae Ornduff.

Sources:
S. Timby, 1998, "The Dudley Herbarium", Sandstone and Tile, 22(4): 1-13.