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Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow (December 9, 1831 in Lauban – March 14, 1904 in
Personensuche
Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow (December 9, 1831 in Lauban – March 14, 1904 in Jugenheim
Seeheim-Jugenheim is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of approximately 17,000.
Seeheim-Jugenheim consists of seven villages:
*Balkhausen (population 693)
*Jugenheim (population 4,448)
*Malch ...
) was a Prussian explorer of Africa, and a naturalist. Von Mechow was a specialty collector of phanerogams, particularly in Angola. He held the rank of major in the Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army (1701–1919, german: Königlich Preußische Armee) served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.
The Prussian Army had its roots in the co ...
.
Von Mechow joined the Loango-expedition under Paul Güssfeldt
Dr Paul Güssfeldt (spelled Güßfeldt in German) (14 October 1840 – 18 January 1920) was a German geologist, mountaineer and explorer.
Biography
Güssfeldt was born in Berlin, where he also died almost 80 years later. After attending the C ...
. He undertook a second larger exploration between 1879 and 1882 in Angola, where he explored the middle course of the Kwango River
The Cuango or Kwango ( pt, Rio Cuango) is a transboundary river of Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the largest left bank tributary of the Kasai River in the Congo River basin. It flows through Malanje in Angola. The Kwango River ...
. He collected birds for Jean Cabanis
Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist.
Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 18 ...
and Anton Reichenow
Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist.
Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He wa ...
at Museum für Naturkunde
The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...
in Berlin.
Several species are named for him including a butterfly (''Papilio mechowi
''Papilio mechowi'' is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae found in Africa.
Subspecies
*''Papilio mechowi mechowi'' (Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic, southern Sudan, Uganda, Republic of the Congo, Angola)
*''Papilio mechowi whitnall ...
'' ), the dusky long-tailed cuckoo (''Cercococcyx mechowi'' ), and Mechow's mole-rat (''Fukomys mechowii'' ).
Von Mechow is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of African snake, '' Xenocalamus mechowii'', and also '' Mechowia'', a genus of flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s from Angola, Zambia and Zaïre, belonging to the family Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...
.
Works
Mechow: ''Kartenwerk meiner Kuango-Expedition''. 28 Blätter. BerlinReferences
Additional references
*James A Jobling, 2009 ''Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names''Personensuche
External link
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mechow, Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von 19th-century German zoologists 1904 deaths 1831 births 19th-century German botanists People from Lubań German explorers of Africa People of the Franco-Prussian War