Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are give ...

. He is considered one of the founders of

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was also a mentor of

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

, one of the earliest and best known phytogeographers. He also influenced Christian Konrad Sprengel, who pioneered the study of plant pollination and floral biology.

Biography

Willdenow was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

and

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 ...

at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

. After studying pharmaceutics at Wieglieb College, Langensalza and in medicine at Halle, he returned to Berlin to work at his father's pharmacy located in the

Unter den Linden Unter den Linden (, "under the linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the linden (lime in England and Ireland, not rela ...

. His early interest in botany was kindled by his uncle J. G. Gleditsch and he started a herbarium collection in his teenage years. In 1794 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was a director of the

Botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

from 1801 until his death. In 1807 Alexander von Humboldt helped to expand the garden. There he studied many

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n plants, brought back by Humboldt. He was interested in the adaptation of plants to climate, showing that the same climate had plants having common characteristics. His herbarium, containing more than 20,000 species, is still preserved in the Botanical Garden in Berlin. Some of the specimens include those collected by Humboldt. Humboldt notes that as a young man he was unable to identify plants using Willdenow's ''Flora Berolinensis''. He subsequently visited Willdenow without an appointment and found him to be a kindred soul only four years older and in three weeks he became an enthusiastic botanist. In his 1792 book, ''Grundriss der Kräuterkunde'' or ''Geschichte der Pflanzen'' Willdenow came up with an idea to explain restricted plant distributions. Willdenow suggested that it was based on past history with mountains surrounded by seas with different sets of plants initially restricted to the peaks which then spread downward and out with receding sea levels. This would fit with the Biblical notion of floods. This was contrary to earlier assertions by

Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann Eberhardt August Wilhelm von Zimmermann (August 17, 1743, Uelzen – July 4, 1815, Braunschweig) was a German geographer and zoologist. He studied natural philosophy and mathematics in Leiden, Halle, Berlin, and Göttingen, and in 1766 was ...

that plants were distributed as they had been in the past and that there had been no changes.

Works

*
Florae Berolinensis prodromus
'' (1787) *''Grundriß der Kräuterkunde'' (1792) *''Linnaei species plantarum'' (1798–1826, 6 volumes
Botanicus
*''Anleitung zum Selbststudium der Botanik'' (1804) *
Historia Amaranthorum
'' (1790) *
Phytographia
'' (1794) *
Enumeratio plantarum horti regii botanici Berolinensis
'' (1809) *
Berlinische Baumzucht
' (1811) *''Abbildung der deutschen Holzarten für Forstmänner und Liebhaber der Botanik'' (1815-1820, Band 1-2
Digital edition
by the University and State Library Düsseldorf *
Hortus Berolinensis
' (1816)

References

External links

(1792)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willdenow, Carl Ludwig 1765 births 1812 deaths German taxonomists German mycologists German phycologists German phytogeographers Pteridologists Botanists active in South America Botanists with author abbreviations 18th-century German botanists 19th-century German botanists 18th-century German writers 18th-century German male writers 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Scientists from Berlin University of Halle alumni Humboldt University of Berlin faculty

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links