Wilhelm Olbers Focke (5 April 1834, Bremen – 29 September 1922, Bremen) was a medical doctor 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 ...

who in 1881 published a significant work on plant breeding entitled ''Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge, Ein Beitrag zur Biologie der Gewächse'' (The plant hybrids, a contribution to the biology of plants) which briefly mentioned

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was ...

's discoveries on hybridization. Although

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 ...

had a copy of Focke's book he passed it along to a colleague apparently without reading this particular section. The rediscovery of Mendel's work is generally considered to have taken place in the first years of the 20th century, however in ''Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge'', Mendel is mentioned about 18 times - although Focke did not apparently take Mendel's work all that seriously. Along with hybridization, Focke analyzed the non-Mendelian phenomena of

graft hybrid In horticulture, a graft-chimaera may arise in grafting at the point of contact between rootstock and scion and will have properties intermediate between those of its "parents". A graft-chimaera is not a true hybrid but a mixture of cells, each w ...

pseudogamy Pseudogamy refers to aspects of reproduction. It has different (but related) meanings in zoology and in botany. In zoology In zoology it means a type of parthenogenesis in which the sperm stimulates the egg cell to develop into an embryo, but n ...

, and xenia. In 1889 Focke conducted an inquiry into the former occurrence of malaria in Northern Germany. He also did much of the work throughout his life on the taxonomy of ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of the ...

'' (Rosaceae) and published several studies (1877-1914). He wrote a number of section monographs for

Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

and Karl Anton Eugen Prantl eds. ''

Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien ''Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (1887–1915) by Adolf Engler (1844–1930) and Karl Anton Prantl is a complete revision of plant families down to generic level and often even further. As such it forms part of the Engler system of plant t ...

'' in the family Rosaceae, notably regarding fruit-bearing plants of that family. Much of his other output was published in the Bremen periodical: ''Abhandlungen: Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein zu Bremen'', a complete list of the published papers in this periodical is available.Abhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen
/ref> On examining the Focke entries on this list of articles, one can appreciate the wide range of subjects that he studied as well as the industry with which he applied himself to his work.

References

19th-century German botanists Physicians from Bremen 1834 births 1922 deaths Scientists from Bremen {{germany-botanist-stub