Joseph Whipple Congdon (April 13, 1834 – April 5, 1910)[1][2] was a lawyer by trade who contributed significantly to early botanical exploration in California, particularly in the Yosemite region, where he resided in Mariposa from 1882 until 1905.
[3][4] Congdon was born in Pomfret, Connecticut and graduated Brown University with the class of 1855.
The "Analytical Class-Book of Botany", coauthored with his aunt, [carrying the epigram "Science is the only interpreter of Nature"] antedated by two years the first edition of Class Book of Botany, by Asa Gray.
Congdon was the botanist whom correctly diagnosed the rediscovery of the long-lost Shortia galacifolia, a relict herb that had been long sought by Gray.
Congdon's collection in Yosemite National Park form an important record of that flora: he was the first botanist to collect the rare Yosemite bog-orchid (Platanthera yosemitensis) in 1895; a species that was not recognized as distinct until 2007[6]