Portrait of Charles Sprague Sargent

Charles Sprague Sargent

American botanist

Lived
1841–1927

Updated September 2026

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About Charles Sprague Sargent

Charles Sprague Sargent was an American botanist. He was appointed in 1872 as the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, and held the post until his death. He published several works of botany. The species epithet “Sargentii” that belongs to a number of species demonstrates species that were either discovered, described or named after Charles Sprague Sargent, notably Malus sargentii, Prunus sargentii and Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii, widely used in bonsai cultivation. The standard author abbreviation Sarg. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers, free texts from Project Gutenberg. Last updated September 2026.