Carl Ernst August Weihe (1779–1834) was a German botanist and physician. Weihe was born on 30 January 1779 at Mennighüffen, the second of 12 children born to KarlJustus Weihe (1752-1829), a pastor, and his wife Anna (née Rebeker). As he later described himself as "''Mindensis''", it is probable that he received his schooling at the Gymnasium in

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...

. Weihe was apprenticed to a pharmacist in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

, before attending the university at Halle, where he studied medicine and botany, receiving his doctorate in September 1802. He worked as a doctor at

Lüttringhausen Lüttringhausen is a district of the German town of Remscheid with a population of 17,857 in 2005; 11,829 in 1905; 13,560, mostly Protestant, in 1910. Overview It was founded around the year 1189. At this time, Lüttringhausen belonged to the Coun ...

(near

Remscheid Remscheid () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south ...

) and

Bünde Bünde (Low German ''Buine'') is a town in the Herford district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Bünde is situated between Osnabrück (west), Hannover (east) and Bielefeld (south). Waterways The town is crossed from west to east ...

, before moving back to Mennighüffen, where he established a small botanical garden on land owned by his father. In 1822, Weihe moved to

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford (district), Herford. Geography ...

, where his children were at school, and where he died in 1834. During his career Weihe described some 160 new plant species. In particular, he made important contributions to the study of the genus ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of these ...

''. Weihe was the first to realise that the bramble, ''

Rubus fruticosus ''Rubus fruticosus'' L. is the ambiguous name of a European blackberry species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the rose family. The name has been interpreted in several ways: *The species represented by the type specimen of ''Rubus fruticosus'' L., ...

'', was not in fact a single species but a complex of similar species; among specimens collected in the vicinity of his home at Mennighüffen he distinguished 18 separate species. Between 1822 and 1827, Weihe and his collaborator, Christian Gottfried Nees von Esenbeck, a taxonomic botanist, published a monograph of the German brambles, ''Rubi Germanici descripti et illustrati'', in which they described 49 species of ''

''. The genus '' Weihea'' (now treated as a synonym of ''

Geissorhiza ''Geissorhiza'' is a genus with 103 species described to date of deciduous perennial flowering plants in the family Iridaceae first described as a genus in 1803. The entire genus is endemic to Cape Province of western South Africa. The genus name ...

'') was named in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weihe, Carl Ernst August 1834 deaths 1779 births 19th-century German botanists