Carl August Wilhelm Schwacke (1848–1904) was a German

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

and naturalist. Born at Alfeld, near

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

, Germany, Schwacke studied Natural Sciences at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, specializing in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

after graduation. He emigrated to Brazil in 1873 and in March 1874 he was hired as a travelling naturalist ("Naturalista viajante") by the botanical department of the

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Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. He travelled all over the country, beginning in 1877, assembling a rich collection of plants. In 1891 he left the National Museum and accepted a post as professor of botany at the School of Pharmacy of Ouro Preto, in

Ouro Preto Ouro Preto (, ''Black Gold''), formerly Vila Rica (, ''Rich Village''), is a city in and former capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Herita ...

(Minas Gerais), where he remained until his death. In the same year he arrived at the School, he was appointed its

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. With the help of students, in numerous botanical excursions he introduced into the course as a regular activity, Schwacke was able to found a

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

in 1892. It still exists today, with more than 30,000 specimens. In 1986 his collection was incorporated into the central herbarium (organized by José Badini) at the Federal University of Ouro Preto. His contributions to botany were mainly

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. He created the family Amburana, among others. Schwacke died in

Barbacena Barbacena is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As of 2020, the municipality had 138,204 inhabitants. The total area of the municipality is . It is in the foothills of the Serra da Mantiqueira south of the state capital Belo ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Biography

* ''Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges.'', 23:12-15, 1906. * ''Fl. Brasil.'' 1 (1): 104 - 105. 1906.

References

19th-century Brazilian botanists 19th-century German botanists Botanists active in South America German explorers German emigrants to Brazil University of Bonn alumni People associated with Federal University of Rio de Janeiro 1848 births 1904 deaths {{Brazil-botanist-stub