Moritz Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, (26 July 1840,

Zöschen Zöschen is a village and a former municipality in the district Saalekreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 31 December 2009, it is part of the town Leuna Leuna () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, south of Merseburg and Halle, Saxon ...

– 29 May 1913,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

), was a German naturalist, geographer, ethnologist, painter, traveler, author, plant collector and Professor of Geography in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

. Eduard was the eldest son of Ferdinand Moritz Pechuël, an innkeeper and mill owner, and Wilhelmine Lösche. After school he joined the merchant navy and travelled widely during the 1860s including the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

Cape Verde Islands Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

, the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

and the seaboards and islands of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He also visited the northern and southern polar regions and the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

. Thereafter he enrolled at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

, studying natural history and geography, and gaining a Ph.D. in 1872. He accompanied

Paul Güssfeldt Dr Paul Güssfeldt (spelled Güßfeldt in German) (14 October 1840 – 18 January 1920) was a German geologist, mountaineer and explorer. Biography Güssfeldt was born in Berlin, where he also died almost 80 years later. After attending the C ...

on the Loango Expedition of 1873–76, playing a role in the founding of the Congo state and later writing a two-volume account of the expedition in 1882 and 1907, ''Die Loango-Expedition, ausgesandt von der Deutschen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung Aequatorial-Afrikas 1873–1876''. Between 1884–85 he acted as

Henry Morton Stanley Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author, and politician famous for his exploration of Central Africa and search for missi ...

's agent. Following a further period of study at Leipzig University, he was commissioned by Leopold II to make a second trip to the Congo in 1882, whereafter he was employed by a Rhenish company and despatched to Hereroland via the

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

in 1884–85. Elsbeth von Leubnitz, his young wife whom he had married on 27 October 1881, travelled with him and they made a joint collection of plants. Their botanising was interrupted by a trip to

Okahandja Okahandja is a city of 45,159 inhabitants in Otjozondjupa Region, central Namibia, and the district capital of the Okahandja electoral constituency. It is known as the ''Garden Town of Namibia''. It is located 70 km north of Windhoek on the B1 r ...

where they tried unsuccessfully to obtain a concession from the chief Kamaherero. On Pechuël-Loesche's return to Europe he accepted an appointment as lecturer at Leipzig University in 1886, and Professor of Geography at Erlangen University in 1895. During his travels he painted some 400

aquarelle Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

s, currently housed with the Geography Department of the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

. He is commemorated in the

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

genus '' Pechuel-loeschea'' O.Hoffm., ''

Adenia pechuelii ''Adenia pechuelii'' is a species of plant in the family Passifloraceae. It is endemic to Namibia. Its population is made up of mostly small subpopulations, and most of these are affected by collecting The hobby of collecting includes seek ...

'' of the

Passifloraceae The Passifloraceae are a family of flowering plants, containing about 750 species classified in around 27 genera. They include trees, shrubs, lianas, and climbing plants, and are mostly found in tropical regions. The family takes its name from t ...

and ''Aerva pechuelii'' of the

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae ( ) is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, maki ...

, having to make way for the older ''Calicorema capitata''. ''Pechuel-loeschea leubnitziae'' was named after Elsbeth, and is quite possibly a unique case of genus and species honouring a husband and wife respectively."The Eponym Dictionary of Southern African Plants Plant Names L-O"
Calflora.net. Retrieved on 2011-12-12.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pechuel-Loesche, Eduard German naturalists German geographers 19th-century German painters German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German ethnologists 1913 deaths 1840 births German male writers 19th-century German male artists International Association of the Congo Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University