Frédéric Albert Constantin Weber (17 May 1830 in
Wolfisheim – 27 July 1903 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a French
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 ...
, who specialized in
Cactaceae
A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...
.
In 1852 he received his medical doctorate from the
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...
with the thesis ''De l'hémorrhagie des méninges cérébrales''. In 1864–67 he served as a military physician on a French military expedition in Mexico.
He is the
taxonomic
280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy
Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...
author or co-author of many species of cacti. He also described a few species of
agave
''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large Rosette (botany), rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves.
Many plan ...
, including ''
Agave tequilana
''Agave tequilana'', commonly called blue Weber agave () or tequila agave, is an agave plant that is an important economic product of Jalisco state of Mexico, due to its role as the base ingredient of tequila. The high production of agavins (bran ...
'', the tequila agave (1902). The genus ''
Weberocereus
''Weberocereus'' is genus of cacti. It produces a green and white flower and is found mainly in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Description
The species of the genus ''Weberocereus'' grows climbing or hanging, epiphytic or lithophytic. Their shoots, w ...
'' commemorates his name.
Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names
by Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton
References
1830 births
1903 deaths
19th-century French botanists
People from Bas-Rhin
University of Strasbourg alumni
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