Johann Baptist Georg Wolfgang Fresenius (25 September 1808 – 1 December 1866) was a German physician and

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 ...

, known for his work in the field of phycology. He was a native of

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. He studied medicine at the Universities of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

and

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

, earning his doctorate at the latter institution in 1829. Afterwards he settled in Frankfurt am Main, where he worked as a general practitioner of medicine while maintaining an active interest in botany. As a student in

and afterwards, he studied botany with his friend

George Engelmann George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, (2 February 1809 – 4 February 1884) was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly known to Europeans; he was particu ...

(1809-1884), who later became a renowned German-American botanist. From 1831 Fresenius was

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Senckenberg herbarium and a teacher at the Senckenberg Research Institute (''Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg''). With his student Anton de Bary (1831–1888), he conducted microscopic investigations of

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

and fungi. He died in Frankfurt on 1 December 1866 at the age of 58. The plant genus ''Fresenia'' from the 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 ...

is named after him.

Selected writings

* ''Grundriss der Botanik, zum Gebrauche bei seinen Vorlesungen'', 1840 - Outline of botany, etc. * ''Beiträge zur mykologie'', 1850 - Contributions to mycology. * ''Beiträge zur Kenntniss mikroskopischer Organismen'', 1856 - Contributions to the understanding of microscopic organisms. * ''Cordiaceae, Heliotropieae, Borragineae'', 1857 - Cordiaceae,

Heliotropioideae Heliotropioideae was a subfamily of the flowering plant family Boraginaceae, comprising roughly 450 species. A 2016 revision of the Boraginales recognises it as a distinct family, Heliotropiaceae. Genera According to the 2016 revision, there are ...

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees and herbs in 146, to 156 genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single family of the order ...

.OCLC Classify
(publications)

References

* ''This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article from the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...

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Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fresenius, Georg 19th-century German botanists German phycologists 1866 deaths 1808 births Physicians from Frankfurt Scientists from Frankfurt