Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, the son of the classical scholar

Hermann Alexander Diels Hermann Alexander Diels (; 18 May 1848 – 4 June 1922) was a German classical scholar, who was influential in the area of early Greek philosophy and is known for his standard work ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker''. Diels helped to import the ...

. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with

Ernst Georg Pritzel Ernst Georg Pritzel (15 May 1875 – 6 April 1946) was a German botanist. He is known for his research in the fields of phytogeography and taxonomy. He contributed works on Lycopodiaceae, Psilotaceae and Pittosporaceae to Engler & Prantl’s "D ...

through

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, Australia and New Zealand. Shortly before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he travelled

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and in the 1930s in

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. Especially his collections of plants from Australia and Ecuador, which contained numerous

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

s, enriched the knowledge of the concerning floras. His monography on the

Droseraceae Droseraceae is a family of carnivorous flowering plants, also known as the sundew family. It consists of approximately 180 species in three extant genera. Representatives of the Droseraceae are found on all continents except Antarctica. Descr ...

from 1906 is still a standard. The majority of his collections were stored at the botanical garden in Berlin-Dahlem, whose vicedirector he had been since 1913, becoming its director in 1921 until 1945. His collections were destroyed there during an air raid in 1943. He died in Berlin on 30 November 1945.

Honours

Several

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of plants have been named after him including; ''

Dielsantha ''Dielsantha'' is a genus of plants in the family Campanulaceae. It has only one known species, ''Dielsantha galeopsoides'', native to tropical West Africa (Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the islands in the Gulf ...

'' (from ''

Campanulaceae The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belo ...

'' family), ''

Dielsia ''Dielsia'' is a genus of plants in the Restionaceae described as a genus in 1904. There is only one known species, ''Dielsia stenostachya'', endemic to Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia ...

'' (from ''

Restionaceae The Restionaceae, also called restiads and restios, are a family of flowering plants native to the Southern Hemisphere; they vary from a few centimeters to 3 meters in height. Following the APG IV (2016): the family now includes the former famil ...

''), ''

Dielsiocharis ''Dielsiocharis'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Brassicaceae. Its native range is Southern Turkmenistan to Iran. The genus name of ''Dielsiocharis'' is a compound, combining Diels from a German botanist Ludwig Diels (187 ...

'' (from ''

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...

'') and ''

Dielsiothamnus ''Dielsiothamnus'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop f ...

'' (from ''

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

'' family). Also ''

Dielitzia ''Dielitzia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae described as a genus in 1989 by Philip Sydney Short. There is only one known species, ''Dielitzia tysonii,'' endemic to Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbr ...

'' (from ''

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 ...

'' family), is named after Ludwig Diels and

(1875–1946).

References

20th-century German botanists Scientists from Hamburg 1874 births 1945 deaths {{Germany-botanist-stub