Franz Carl Mertens (3 April 1764 – 19 June 1831) was a German

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 ...

who was a native of Bielefeld. He specialized in the field of phycology. Mertens studied theology and languages at the University of Halle, and after graduation taught classes at

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

Polytechnic College. In his spare time he studied botany, and through a mutual friend met German botanist

Albrecht Wilhelm Roth Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (6 January 1757 – 16 October 1834) was a physician and botanist born in Dötlingen, Germany. He studied medicine at the Universities of Halle and Erlangen, where he received his doctorate in 1778. After graduation, he pra ...

(1757–1834). With Roth, he took scientific expeditions throughout Europe, including Scandinavia. From these trips, Mertens described a number of species of

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 ...

. He also performed illustrative work on Volume 3 of Roth's ''Catalecta botanica''. With Erlangen professor Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch (1771–1849), he published the third edition of Johann Christoph Röhling's ''Deutschlands flora'', a five volume treatise on German flora. The plant genus ''

Mertensia ''Mertensia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. They are perennial herbaceous plants with blue or sometimes white flowers that open from pink-tinged buds. Such a change in flower color is common in Boraginaceae and is ca ...

'' from the family Boraginaceae is named after him, while the

ctenophore Ctenophora (; ctenophore ; ) comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and ...

genus ''Mertensia'' is named after his son Karl Heinrich Mertens (1796-1830).

References

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
1764 births 1831 deaths Scientists from Bielefeld 19th-century German botanists German phycologists 18th-century German botanists {{Germany-botanist-stub

See also

References