Edward Frederick Anderson (Covina, California, June 17, 1932 – March 29, 2001) was an American botanist who conducted extensive explorations in Mexico.

He was a leading specialist in the cactus family. He was Senior Research Botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix. He chaired the International Organization for Succulent Plant Study. He was a member of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America and the Linnean Society of London. He was emeritus professor of biology at Whitman College, where he taught for three decades.^[1]

In 1998, Anderson was awarded the Cactus d'Or, given by the principality of Monaco for outstanding research on succulents.^{[citation needed]}

Books

• Peyote: The Divine Cactus. University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1981, ISBN 0-8165-0613-2
• Plants and People of the Golden Triangle: Ethnobotany of the Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand. Dioscorides Press, Portland (Oregon) 1993, ISBN 0-931146-25-9
• Threatened Cacti of Mexico. Balogh Scientific Books, Kew 1994, ISBN 0-947643-70-2 con Salvador Arias & Nigel P. Taylor
• The Cactus Family. Timber Press, Portland (Oregon) 2001, ISBN 0-88192-498-9