Christian Friedrich Ecklon (17 December 1795 – 1 December 1868) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

botanical 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 ...

collector and

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...

. Ecklon is especially known for being an avid collector and researcher of plants in South Africa.

Biography

Ecklon was from

Åbenrå Aabenraa (; , ; Sønderjysk: ''Affenråe'') is a town in Southern Denmark The Region of Southern Denmark ( da, Region Syddanmark, ; german: Region Süddänemark, ; frr, Regiuun Syddanmark) is an administrative region of Denmark established ...

, Denmark. He was trained as a pharmacist in Kiel. He first went to South Africa in 1823. During his visit he worked as an apothecary while also looking for plants with medicinal value. Lack of funding and a deteriorating health forced him to live in poor circumstances. When he returned to Europe in 1828, he had collected an extensive

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 ...

. During his stay in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

from 1833 to 1838, he worked on revising this collection. This herbarium would become the basis for the ''Flora Capensis'' (1860–1865) by his friend, Hamburg botanist

Otto Wilhelm Sonder Otto Wilhelm Sonder (18 June 1812, Bad Oldesloe – 21 November 1881) was a German botanist and pharmacist. Life A native of Holstein, Sonder studied at Kiel University, where he sat pharmaceutical examinations in 1835, before becoming the prop ...

(1812–1881) in collaboration with the Irish botanist

William Henry Harvey William Henry Harvey, FRS FLS (5 February 1811 – 15 May 1866) was an Irish botanist and phycologist who specialised in algae. Biography Harvey was born at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. His father ...

(1811–1866). The herbarium was later sold to

Unio Itineraria Unio Itineraria was a German scientific society which was based at Esslingen am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The organisation paid botanists to travel and collect plants, and sold the collections in large sets. Rising costs associated w ...

, a

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

Botanical Society which had been organized by botanist

Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (16 February 1787 – 20 February 1860) was a German botanist and Protestant minister. Biography Hochstetter was born in Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. He was the father of geologist Ferdinand Hoc ...

(1787–1860) and physician

Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel (30 May 1783 – 12 May 1856) was a German physician and an authority on poaceae, grasses. Biography Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel was born at Esslingen am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. He was educated at the University of ...

(1783–1856). Ecklon received a travel scholarship from the Danish government and in 1829 he went again to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

where until 1833, together with the German botanist and entomologist,

Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher (2 August 1799 Dillenburg, Hessen, Germany – 13 December 1858 Cape Town), was a botanical and insect collector who collected extensively in South Africa. He was the author, with Christian Friedrich Ecklon, of ''Enumer ...

(1799–1858), he collected a sizable herbarium, a large part of which was handed over to the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

and the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

. From 1833-38, he lived in Hamburg and began the publication of descriptions of South African plants in ''Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis Extratropicae'', a descriptive catalogue of South African plants in three parts which appeared (1835-37). In 1838 he traveled again to the Cape where he remained until his death in 1868.

Legacy

According to

IPNI The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

, Ecklon named a total of 1,974 different genera or species. The genus ''

Ecklonia ''Ecklonia'' is a genus of kelp (brown algae) belonging to the family Lessoniaceae. The genus name of ''Ecklonia'' is in honour of Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1795–1868), who was a Danish botanical collector and apothecary. The genus was circu ...

'' (a genus of kelp (brown algae) belonging to the family

Lessoniaceae Lessoniaceae are a family of kelp. Species of this family have transition zone with intercalary meristem subdivided so that there are a number of secondary stipes in addition to the primary stipe. Genera and species *''Ecklonia'' **''Ecklonia a ...

), including Ecklon's kelp (''Ecklonia biruncinata'' or '' E. radiata''), as well as Ecklon's Purple Iceplant (''

Delosperma ecklonis ''Delosperma'' ('delos'=evident, 'sperma'=seed) is a genus of around 170 species of succulent plants, formerly included in ''Mesembryanthemum'' in the family Aizoaceae. It was defined by English botanist N. E. Brown in 1925. The genus is common i ...

'' 'Bright Eyes') and Ecklon's Everlasting ('' Helichrysum ecklonis'') were named in his honour. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Eckl. when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Intern ...

References

Other Sources

*William H. Harvey, Otto Wilhelm Sonder, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer (Editor). ''Flora Capensis: Being a Systematic Description of the Plants of the Cape Colony, Caffraria, & Port Natal (and Neighbouring Territories)'' (January 1900); {{DEFAULTSORT:Ecklon, Christian Friedrich 1795 births 1868 deaths People from Aabenraa Municipality Botanists with author abbreviations 19th-century Danish botanists Danish entomologists Danish explorers Botanists active in Africa