Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal (27 November 1794, Xanten – 12 October 1866,

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

) 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 ...

. He studied in Berlin, in 1819 becoming curator of the Royal Herbarium. He was a professor of botany and director of the Botanical Gardens at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1833 until his death in 1866. The genus '' Schlechtendalia'' (Asteraceae), from Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, was named in his honor. He was editor of the botanical journal ''Linnaea'' (from 1826), and with Hugo von Mohl (1805-1872), was publisher of the ''Botanischen Zeitung'' (from 1843). He conducted important investigations of the then largely unknown flora of Mexico, carried out in conjunction with Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838), and based on specimens collected by Christian Julius Wilhelm Schiede (1798-1836) and

Ferdinand Deppe Ferdinand Deppe (1794–1861) was a German naturalist, explorer and painter. He was born and died in Berlin. Deppe travelled to Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion o ...

(1794-1861). Schlechtendal was a critic of

Darwinism Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...

but accepted a limited form of evolution. He advocated a form

common descent Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

of "some groups of very similar species, which also inhabit a limited area".Glick, Thomas F. (1988). ''The Comparative Reception of Darwinism''. University of Chicago Press. p. 86, p. 92.

Written works

* ''Animadversiones botanicae in Ranunculaceas'', Berlin 1819–1820. * ''Flora berolinensis'', Berlin 1823–1824. * ''Adumbrationes plantarum'', 1825–1832. * ''Flora von Deutschland'', Jena 1840–1873 (with

Christian Eduard Langethal Christian Eduard Langethal (6 January 1806, Erfurt – 28 July 1878, Jena) was a German botanist and agronomist. He is known for his writings involving agricultural botany and agricultural history. Beginning in 1827 he studied natural sciences a ...

and Ernst Schenk; fifth edition by

Ernst Hallier Ernst Hallier (15 November 1831, in Hamburg – 19 December 1904, in Dachau) was a German botanist and mycologist. As a young man he was trained as a gardener, later studying botany at the universities of Berlin, Jena and Göttingen. From 1858 he s ...

1880–1887). * ''Hortus halensis'', Halle 1841–1853.

References

External links

Biography
@ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon 19th-century German botanists German mycologists Pteridologists 1794 births 1866 deaths Botanists active in North America Botanists with author abbreviations Non-Darwinian evolution People from Xanten People from the Duchy of Cleves Adelbert von Chamisso {{Mycologist-stub