Catharina Helena Dörrien (1 March 1717, in

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

– 8 June 1795, in

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German- Dutch holiday roa ...

) was a German

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and teacher, recognized as "the most celebrated German-speaking female naturalist of the period". She was a talented artist who painted over 1,400

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

botanical illustration Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species. They are generally meant to be scientifically descriptive about subjects depicted and are often found printed alongside a botanical description in boo ...

s, and published a catalogue of plants of the

Principality of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of O ...

in 1777. She was also the first woman to name a

fungal A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the tradit ...

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

Early life

Dörrien was the daughter of Pastor Johann Jonas Dörrien and Lucia Catharina (née Schrader), and was the second of their four children. The pastor educated his children at home, including in botany. Dörrien took over the running of the family home after her mother died in 1733, but her father died four years later.

Career

Dörrien left

and started working as a governess in

for her childhood friend Sophie Anna Blandina (née von Alers) in 1746, when she was 30. Dörrien initially painted for pleasure, but was encouraged by Sophie's husband, Anton Ulrich von Erath, to create an illustrated flora of the principality of Orange-Nassau. Dörrien produced the catalogue in 1777, being one of the first Germans to use the Linnean system of classification. In the catalogue she introduced two varieties, becoming the first woman to name a fungal taxon.

Honours

Dörrien was an honorary member of numerous societies: honorary member of the Societatis Botanicae Florentinae (Botanical Society of Florence, from 1766), the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin ( Berlin Society of Friends of Nature, from 1776), the first female member of the Berlinischen Gesellschaft (Berlin Society, from 1776) and the Botanischen Gesellschaft zu Regensburg (Regensburg Botanical Society, from 1790). ''Doerriena'', a genus of

chickweed ''Stellaria media'', chickweed, is an annual flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Eurasia and naturalized throughout the world, where it is a weed of waste ground, farmland and gardens. It is sometimes grown as a salad ...

s is named after Dörrien.

Publications

: Dörrien CH (1770a). Von der Fragaria sterilis. ''Hannoverisches Magazin'' 8(35): 557–560. : Dörrien CH (1770b). Von den Wurzeln der Cuscuta. ''Hannoverisches Magazin''8(56): 891–896. : Dörrien CH (1773). Erfahrung von verschiedenem Ungeziefer, welches den Salat verfolget, und den Mitteln dagegen. ''Dillenburgische Intelligenz-Nachrichten'' 5 June: 153–154. : Dörrien CH (1777) s ‘1779’ ''Verzeichniß und Beschreibung der sämtlichen in den Fürstlich Oranien-Naussauischen Landen wildwachsenden Gewächse''. Bey Christian Gottfried Donatius, Lübeck, Germany. L-2 31.113, 2 editions: Dörrien CH (1785). Nachrichten von Katharina Helena Dörrien, von ihr selbst erzählt, in einem Briefe an Herrn Professor Seybold''. Magazin für Frauenzimmer'' 1785(4): 125–135.

References

External links