Christoph Carl Friedrich von Wurmb (2 July 1742 – March 1781) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

botanist. His official shorthand is "Wurmb". He was a descendant of the noble family von Wurmb. At some point in time, his elder brother Ludwig and he himself fell in love with the same woman. After a long decision process, he decided to emigrate, and leave the woman to his brother. He joined the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

, and emigrated to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, and later to Batavia, the modern-day Jakarta. His brother later married this woman, Christiane von Werthern. His sister's brother in law, Friedrich Schiller, wrote a short story about it, ''A magnanimous act'' (''Eine Grossmütige Handlung''). In biology, he is known for his

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

s. and for his writing about a Bornean orangutan.''Beschryving van de groote Borneoosche Orang Outang of de oost-indische Pongo''. In: ''Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Weetenschappen'', Band 2, 1784,pp 245 ff.
Digitalisat
The genus ''

Wurmbea ''Wurmbea'' is a genus of perennial herbs in the family Colchicaceae, native to Africa and Australia. There are about 50 species, with about half endemic to each continent. Recently the circumscription of the genus ''Wurmbea'' has been incr ...

'' in the family

Colchicaceae Colchicaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes 15 genera with a total of about 285 known species according to Christenhusz and Byng in 2016. Description The family is characterized by the presence of colchicine. Taxonomy The APG III ...

is named after him.

References

1742 births 1781 deaths 18th-century German botanists Botanists with author abbreviations {{Germany-biologist-stub