Christian Friedrich Lessing (10 August 1809 – 13 March 1862) 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 ...

who was a native of Groß Wartenberg,

Niederschlesien Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...

. He was a brother to painter

Carl Friedrich Lessing Karl Friedrich Lessing (15 February 1808, Breslau – 4 January 1880, Karlsruhe) was a German historical and landscape painter, grandnephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and one of the main exponents of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biogr ...

(1808–1880), and a grandnephew of poet

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...

(1729–1781). Lessing was a botanical authority on the plant family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

, and in 1832 published an influential treatise on Asteraceae called ''Synopsis generum Compositarum''. He performed extensive botanical research in Siberia. In 1862 he was buried in

Trinity Cemetery Trinity Cemetery was founded on Trinity Sunday (20 June) in 1869 as the first cemetery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie. It is located on West Lake Road in Erie, Pennsylvania. The parish cemeteries of Holy Trinity and St. Stanislaus were incor ...

, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. The plant genus ''

Lessingia ''Lessingia'' is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae which are native to western North America. Several species are endemic to California. ''Lessingias'' are generally daisy-like in appearance with white, yellow, or purple flowers, but th ...

'' from the family Asteraceae is named in honor of Christian Friedrich, Karl Friedrich and

.von Chamisso, L.K.A., Lessingia, novum genus e familia Compositarum. Linnaea (1829) 4(2): 203-204

Selected publications

* ''Reise durch Norwegen nach den Loffoden durch Lappland und Schweden'', 1831 * ''Synopsis generum Compositarum, earumque dispositionis novae tentamen, monographiis multarum Capensium interjectis'', 1832

References

* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.'' 19th-century German botanists 1809 births 1862 deaths People from Syców People from the Province of Silesia {{Germany-botanist-stub