Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel (30 May 1783 – 12 May 1856) was a German
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
and an authority on
grasses
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...
.
Biography
Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel was born at
Esslingen am Neckar
Esslingen am Neckar ( Swabian: ''Esslenga am Neckor'') is a town in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, seat of the District of Esslingen as well as the largest town in the district. Within Baden-Württemberg it is t ...
in
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
.
He was educated at the
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...
, earning his medical doctorate in 1805. Shortly afterwards he settled into a medical practice in his hometown of
Esslingen and in 1826 became the chief state physician in what had become the
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which exist ...
.
In 1825, together with
Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter
Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (16 February 1787 – 20 February 1860) was a German botanist and Protestant minister.
Biography
Hochstetter was born in Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg. He was the father of geologist Ferdinand Hoc ...
(1787-1860), he organized an organization in Esslingen known as
Unio Itineraria Unio Itineraria was a German scientific society which was based at Esslingen am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The organisation paid botanists to travel and collect plants, and sold the collections in large sets.
Rising costs associated w ...
(''Württembergischer botanische severein''). The purpose of this society was to send young botanists out into the world to discover and collect plants in all of their varieties thus promoting and expanding botanical studies and herbaria throughout the Kingdom and beyond. Hochstetter himself traveled to Portugal, Madeira, and the Azores, and Steudel was able to create a herbarium of over 20,000 species. Steudel and Hochstetter were the co-authors of ''Enumeratio plantarum Germaniae'' (1826).
The botanical genera ''
Steudelago'' (
Kuntze Kuntze is a surname of German origin. People with that name include:
* Carl Kuntze (1922-2006), Dutch rower who competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics
* Edward J. Kuntze (1826-1870), Prussian-born American sculptor
* Otto Kuntze (1843-1907), German ...
, 1891) and ''
Steudelella
''Sphaerocaryum'' is a genus of Asian plants in the grass family. The only known species is ''Sphaerocaryum malaccense'', native to southern China, Indochina, the Indian Subcontinent, Peninsular Malaysia, Philippines, and Sumatra
Sumatra i ...
'' (
Honda, 1930) honor his name.
Publications
* ''Nomenclator botanicus'', 2 volumes (1821-1824), An alphabetical listing of more than 3300 genera and approximately 40,000 species.
* ''Enumeratio plantarum Germaniae'', 1826 (with Christian Ferdinand Hochstetter).
* ''Synopsis planterum glumacearum'', 2 volumes (1853-1855), Volume I is dedicated to the botanical family
Poaceae
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...
, and Volume II involves
Cyperaceae
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...
and affiliated families.
Botanicus.org
(biographical information)
References
19th-century German physicians
Agrostologists
1783 births
1856 deaths
People from Esslingen am Neckar
People from the Duchy of Württemberg
University of Tübingen alumni
19th-century German botanists
{{Germany-botanist-stub