Roland Maurice Jefferson
Roland Maurice Jefferson was a botanist focused on the study of several types of trees. He completed a B.S. in botany following his service in the US Army during WWII. He was initially hired for a basic position at the US National Arboretum to make labels for plants, and developed a new, more durable method of labeling before being promoted to botanist a year later. While working at the Arboretum Jefferson conducted international research on crab apple trees and wrote a book on the subject. He then began conducting historical and botanical research on the cherry blossom trees of Washington D.C. Japan sent hundreds of cherry trees to the US in 1912 as a symbol of friendship between the nations. These trees typically live for around 40 years, so by the 1970s the original gift trees were rapidly dying out and were replaced by cherry blossom trees from elsewhere in the US. Jefferson identified this decline and took cuttings from as many of the original surviving trees as possible, creating genetic clones of the trees which had borne witness to decades of history in the nation’s capitol. He published the definitive work on D.C.’s cherry trees, and provided over a thousand cuttings to the city of Tokyo to replace trees lost in the post-war period. Jefferson was invited to move to Japan in an instructory and advisory capacity, and conducted additional research into the classification of different varieties of cherry blossom trees. He improved the genetic diversity of US cherry trees by introducing new varietals which were better adapted to American environmental conditions. He also founded and ran a seed exchange program for American and Japanese school children, who exchanged dogwood and cherry seeds.