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Roland Jefferson

1923–2020

United States

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Biography

Roland Maurice Jefferson (September 3, 1923 – November 27, 2020) was an American botanist who was the first African-American botanist to be employed by the United States National Arboretum, where he worked from 1956 to 1987. According to The Washington Post, he became an "international authority" on flowering cherry trees, coauthoring a 1977 book on how Washington, D.C., obtained its famous cherry trees.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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