Carl Clawson Epling was an American botanist who is best known for being the major authority on the Lamiaceae

Lamiaceae

The mints, taxonomically known as Lamiaceae or Labiatae, are a family of flowering plants. They have traditionally been considered closely related to Verbenaceae, but in the 1990s, phylogenetic studies suggested that many genera classified in Verbenaceae belong instead in Lamiaceae...

 (mint family) of the Americas from the 1920s to the 1960s. In his later years he also developed an interest in genetics. After obtaining his Ph.D. with a dissertation on the genus Monardella

Monardella

Monardella is a genus of 28 species of annual and perennial plants native to western North America. They are grown for their highly aromatic foliage, which in some species is used for herbal teas...

, he became staff member at the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 in 1924. In 1941, he was made faculty research lecturer.

Epling published more than one hundred scientific works ranging from monographs to contributions to local floras, and described numerous species new to science—including the well known psychoactive Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive plant which can induce dissociative effects and is a potent producer of "visions" and other hallucinatory experiences...

—as well as some new genera.