{{Short description|American botanist (1898-1960)}}{{Infobox scientist | image = Ivan M. Johnston in 1922.png | caption = Johnston in May 1922 | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|02|28}} | birth_place = Los Angeles, California | death_date = {{death date and age|1960|05|31|1898|02|28}} | death_place = Boston, Massachusetts | fields = Botany | workplaces = Harvard University | alma_mater = Harvard University (PhD)<br>University of California, Berkeley (AB, MA) | author_abbrev_bot = I.M.Johnst }}
'''Ivan Murray Johnston''' (February 28, 1898 – May 31, 1960) was an American botanist who spent most of his career at Harvard University and the Arnold Arboretum.
== Life and career == Johnston was born in Los Angeles to physician William M. Johnston and Dora Etta (Farnsworth) Johnston. He studied botany at Pomona College and received his AB from University of California at Berkeley in 1920, his MA from Berkeley in 1922, and his PhD from Harvard University in 1925. After graduation, he conducted field work in Chile on a Sheldon Travelling Fellowship from Harvard and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1932.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ivan M. Johnston |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/ivan-m-johnston |access-date=2025-09-07 |website=Guggenheim Fellowships}}</ref> He spent most of his career at Harvard University, starting out as an assistant in the Gray Herbarium from 1922 to 1931 and gaining promotions to research associate at the Arnold Arboretum in 1931 and associate professor of botany in 1938. From 1948 to 1953 he also worked as associate director of the Arnold Arboretum.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Johnston, Ivan Murray (1898-1960) |url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000004116 |access-date=2025-09-06 |website=JSTOR Global Plants}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Correll |first=Donovan S. |date=January 1961 |title=Ivan Murray Johnston (1898‐1960) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1996-8175.1961.tb01794.x |journal=Taxon |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.1002/j.1996-8175.1961.tb01794.x |issn=0040-0262}}</ref> He died suddenly at home in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, on May 31, 1960.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Howard |first=Richard A. |date=1961 |title=Ivan Murray Johnston, 1898-1960 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43781370 |journal=Journal of the Arnold Arboretum |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |issn=0004-2625}}</ref>
Johnston was considered a leading authority on the family Boraginaceae. He collected algae, pteridophytes and spermatophytes and traveled widely to collect specimens in the Andes, Panama, the southwestern United States, and northern Mexico. His plant collections are housed in the California Botanic Garden and the Harvard University Herbaria.<ref name=":0" /> He published extensively in ''Fieldiana'', ''Journal of the Arnold Arboretum'', ''Revista Chilena de Historia Natural'', and other scientific journals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lanjouw |first=J. |date=1960 |title=Ivan Murray Johnston (1898-1960) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1216276 |journal=Taxon |volume=9 |issue=7 |pages=220–220 |issn=0040-0262}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
==Honors== In 1925, German botanist August Brand named a genus of flowering plants (belonging to the family Boraginaceae) from South America and the southern United States, as ''Johnstonella'' in Johnston's honour.<ref>{{Cite POWO |id = 291643-2 |title=''Johnstonella'' Brand |access-date=14 May 2021}}</ref> Then in 1933, German botanist Otto Eugen Schulz named a genus of flowering plants (belonging to the family Brassicaceae) from Chile as ''Ivania''.<ref>{{Cite POWO |title=''Ivania'' O.E.Schulz | id = 291629-2 |access-date=14 May 2021 }}</ref> In 1936, Chinese botanist Hsen Hsu Hu published ''Sinojohnstonia'', which is a genus of flowering plants from China, belonging to the family Boraginaceae.<ref>{{Cite POWO |title=''Sinojohnstonia'' Hu | id = 4805-1 |access-date=25 May 2021 }}</ref> In 1975, Somali-Pakistani botanist Syed Muhammad Anwar Kazmi named a monotypic genus of flowering plants (belonging to the family Boraginaceae), from the Western Himalayas as ''Ivanjohnstonia'' in his honour.<ref>{{Cite POWO |title=''Ivanjohnstonia'' Kazmi | id = 4626-1 |access-date=26 May 2021 }}</ref>
Johnston was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Botanical Society of America, the American Society of Naturalists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New England Botanical Club, and Sigma Xi. He was a corresponding member of the National Academies of Sciences of Argentina and Chile.<ref name=":1" />
== Taxa named by Johnston == Some taxa named by Johnston include the following.
* ''Fitzroya cupressoides'' * ''Leucophyllum frutescens'' * ''Astragalus sprucei'' * ''Euplassa'' * ''Euplassa occidentalis'' * ''Fuchsia hypoleuca'' * ''Brunnera macrophylla''
{{botanist|I.M.Johnst.|Johnston, Ivan Murray}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * James Stuart Miller, Mary Sue Taylor, and Erin Rempala. (2005). ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/169611 Ivan M. Johnston's Studies in the Boraginaceae].'' Missouri Botanical Garden. {{ISBN|1-930723-44-X}} * Robert Jan 'Roy' van de Hoek''.'' (2005). ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20090729180509/http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/5604/ballona1917ivanjohnston.htm Restoration and Recovery for Elna Bakker and Ivan Johnston. "R&R" for the Playa del Rey Frogs and Plants].''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Ivan Murray}} Category:1898 births Category:1960 deaths Category:20th-century American botanists Category:American pteridologists Category:Arnold Arboretum Category:Botanists active in California Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Pomona College alumni Category:Scientists from California
Category:Scientists from Los Angeles Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni