Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper in Amharic sources known as Sambar (2 August 1804 – October 1878) was a renowned German botanist and naturalist, who spent more than forty years in Ethiopia collecting specimens of plants, mainly in Semien, the Tekeze area and around Adwa. Schimper discovered more new African plant species than possibly any other botanist, and numerous plant species bear the epithet ''Schimperi/Schimperiana''.

Biography

Schimper was born at

Lauf an der Pegnitz Lauf an der Pegnitz (; Northern Bavarian: ''Lauf an da Pegnitz'') is a town to the East of Nuremberg, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nürnberger Land, in Bavaria. It is in the valley of the River Pegnitz, which flows through the tow ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. He was the son of Margaretha Baroness von Furthenbach and the engineer and teacher Friedrich Ludwig Heinrich Schimper. He was a brother to naturalist Karl Friedrich Schimper (1803–1867). From 1828 to 1830 Schimper studied natural history in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and entered into contact with Eduard Rüppell, and for a short period of time worked with

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

Louis Agassiz as a draftsman and illustrator. In 1831 he undertook a botanical collection trip to Algiers, about which, he published ''Reise nach Algier in den jahren 1831 und 1832''. A few years later he conducted botanical research in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and the Sinai, eventually settling in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

in 1836. During his time spent in

, he had residences in Tigray and Semien provinces. For a period of time he was governor of Enticho, a district in Tigray, under the rule of ''

Dejazmach Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( gez, መሳፍንት , modern , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary nobility, formed the upper ...

Wube Haile Maryam Wube Haile Maryam of Semien, (1799-1867), also called by his title ''Dejazmach'' Wube, Webé; his name is also given in European sources as ‘‘Ubie’’. Wube was one of the major figures of 19th century Ethiopia, during the closing decades o ...

, who had him marry Mirritsit, a woman from a prominent family in Adwa, who bore him several children. Although he was imprisoned at Magdala by Emperor Tewodros II, otherwise he suffered no serious losses during that unsettled time. While in Ethiopia, he maintained correspondence with botanists in Europe, and made valuable contributions to natural history collections in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He was also a collector for Unio Itineraria (''Der Esslinger Botanische Reiseverein'') in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

. During the years 1864 to 1868 he wrote an extensive report on his observations made in the course of his botanical trips through Tigray in northern Ethiopia. The manuscripts came to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1870 and are now kept in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. They are available online in the public domain.Schimper, Georg Wilhelm
''In Abyssinia. Observations on Tigre''
Ed. by Andreas Gestrich and Dorothea McEwan. Critical online edition, 2015 Schimper died at Adwa in Tigray, Ethiopia .

Taxa

His name is commemorated by the botanical genera '' Schimpera'' (family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...

), ''Schimperella'' (now a synonym of '' Oreoschimperella'' ) and ''Schimperina'' (now a synonym of ''

Agelanthus __NOTOC__ ''Agelanthus'' is a genus of Afrotropical plants in family Loranthaceae. They grow in trees, including Acacia and Combretum species, as hemiparasitic shrubs of varying sizes. The host plant is penetrated by a single haustorium, and the ...

'' ). The species epithet ''schimperiana'' is attached to a number of plants; a few examples being '' Habenaria schimperiana'', ''Pyrrosia schimperiana'' (now a synonym of ''Hovenkampia schimperiana'',), '' Festuca schimperiana'' and '' Kalanchoe schimperiana''.Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
Kalanchoe schimperiana

References

Notes

* "This article incorporates translated text from an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia".

Relevant literature

*McEwan, Dorothea. "Georg Wilhelm Schimper (1804-1878). Maps and cross-sectional profiles of Tigray, the Semen Mountains and the Märäb and Täkkäze regions of Ethiopa". ''Journal of the International Map Collectors’ Society'' ( IMCoS), London, June 2020 edition, 7-17. ISSN 0956-5728.

External links

CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: R-Z
by Umberto Quattrocchi

at German Historical Institute London {{DEFAULTSORT:Schimper, Wilhelm 1804 births 1878 deaths People from Nürnberger Land People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni 19th-century German botanists