Max Ernst Wichura (27 January 1817 in Neisse – February 1866 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) was a German lawyer 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 ...

. A lawyer by vocation, he studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

in Breslau and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. In 1859 he was appointed as a government councillor (''Regierungsrath'') in Breslau, a position he maintained until his death in 1866.ADB:Wichura, Max
@

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 ...

He studied botany as a gymnasium student in Breslau, where one of his instructors was Friedrich Wimmer. As a law student at Bonn, he continued his botanical research, conducting studies on

plant shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spri ...

morphology and

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...

, especially of freshwater

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

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es. During the summer of 1846, he embarked on a botanical excursion to Austrian Silesia, and ten years later, took part in an expedition to

Lapland Lapland may refer to: Places *Lapland or Sápmi, an ethno-cultural region stretching over northern Fennoscandia (parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia) **Lapland (Finland) (''Lappi''/''Lappland''), a Finnish region *** Lapland (former pr ...

(1856). Afterwards, he performed cryptogamic investigations on trips to the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

and

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...

. In 1859, he participated as a botanist on a Prussian expedition to Eastern Asia, where he visited

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

and various coastal areas of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. As a botanist, he was an expert on the

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

genus '' Salix''. Known for his pioneer research involving plant hybrids, he is credited with recreating a number of naturally occurring hybrids. He corresponded with

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

in regards to hybridization, and Gregor Mendel was familiar with his research on willow hybrids. The popular rose species ''

Rosa wichuraiana ''Rosa lucieae'' (syn. ''Rosa wichurana''), the memorial rose, is a species of rose native to eastern Asia. Description It is a woody, semi-evergreen shrub, with long trailing thorny branches of glossy green leaves, and single five-petalled whit ...

'' is named after him, as is the subgenus ''Wichuraea'', circumscribed by

Max Joseph Roemer Max Joseph Roemer (1791–1849) was a German botanist who worked in Weimar. Roemer served as ''Landrichter'' (country judge) in the Bavarian town of Aub before working as a private scientist in Würzburg. and is the taxonomic authority of the gene ...

in 1847.

Selected works

* ''Aus vier Welttheilen : eine Reise-Tagebuch in Briefen'', 1868. * ''Die Bastardbefruchtung im Pflanzenreich : erlaütert an den Bastarden der Weiden'', 1885.WorldCat Identities
(publications)

References

External links

Robert C. Olby, Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wichura, Max Ernst 1817 births 1866 deaths 19th-century German botanists Lawyers from the Kingdom of Prussia Naturalists from the Kingdom of Prussia People from the Province of Silesia University of Bonn alumni