Friedrich Karl Johann Vaupel ( 23 May 1876,

Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in th ...

– 4 May 1927,

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 ...

) was a German botanist who specialized in the study of cacti. He was the

binomial authority In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of many species within the family

Cactaceae A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

. He studied medicine and

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

in Berlin,

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 ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, obtaining his PhD in 1903 as a student of

Karl Ritter von Goebel Karl Immanuel Eberhard Ritter von Goebel FRS FRSE (8 March 1855, Billigheim, Baden – 9 October 1932, Munich) was a German botanist. His main fields of study were comparative functional anatomy, morphology, and the developmental physiology of p ...

at Munich. While still a student, he participated in a scientific journey to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

(1899–1900). Following graduation, from 1903 to 1907, he was involved in an extended expedition to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Australia and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

.Biodiversity Heritage Library
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications In 1908 he began work as an assistant at the botanical museum in Berlin-Dahlem, where in 1921 he became a

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 ...

. In 1926 he was awarded with the title of professor. The genus ''Vaupelia'' was named in his honor by botanist August Brand (1863–1930).

Published works

He was an editor of the multi-volume "''Blühende Kakteen (Iconographia cactacearum)''", issued in 45 parts from 1900 to 1921. The project was originated by

Karl Moritz Schumann Karl Moritz Schumann (17 June 1851 – 22 March 1904) was a German botanist. Schumann was born in Görlitz. He was curator of the Botanisches Museum in Berlin-Dahlem from 1880 until 1894. He also served as the first chairman of the ''Deutsc ...

in 1900, and continued by Max Gürke and Vaupel. Other written efforts by Vaupel include: * ''Vier von Ule in Nordbrasilien und Peru gesammelte Kakteen'', (1913). * ''Zeitschrift für Sukkulentenkunde'', (editor). * ''Die Kakteen: Monographie der Cactaceae'', (1925, 1926).Google Books
publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaupel, Friedrich Karl Johann 1876 births 1927 deaths People from Bad Kreuznach 20th-century German botanists Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni