Georg Wilhelm Schimper
{{short description|German botanist (1804-1878)}}
Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper in Amharic sources known as Sambar{{refn|group=note|Amharized version of his last name Schimper}} (2 August 1804 – October 1878) was a 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.{{cite book |last1=Uhlig |first1=Siegbert |last2=Bausi |first2=Alessandro |last3=Yimam |first3=Baye |date=2010 |title=Encyclopaedia Aethiopica |work= |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |pages=573–574 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t8VHAQAAIAAJ |access-date= |isbn=978-3-447-06246-6 |issn= |oclc=}}
Biography
Schimper was born at Lauf an der Pegnitz in Bavaria. 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).{{cite web|url= http://gedbas.genealogy.net/person/show/1207517880 |title= Karl Friedrich Schimper|website= Computergenealogie|access-date=August 1, 2020}}
From 1828 to 1830 Schimper studied natural history in Munich and entered into contact with Eduard Rüppell, and for a short period of time worked with geologist 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.[https://books.google.com/books/about/Wilhelm_Schimper_s_Reise_nach_Algier_in.html?id=AL4tAAAAYAAJ Google Books] Wilhelm Schimper's Reise nach Algier in den jahren 1831 und 1832 A few years later he conducted botanical research in Egypt and the Sinai,[https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Schimper,_Wilhelm ADB:Schimper, Wilhelm] at Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie eventually settling in Ethiopia in 1836.
During his time spent in Ethiopia, 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 Wube Haile Maryam, 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 and Berlin. He was also a collector for Unio Itineraria (Der Esslinger Botanische Reiseverein) in Württemberg.{{cite web|url= https://www.lehmanns.de/shop/naturwissenschaften/34754678-9783832542115-der-esslinger-botanische-reiseverein-1825-1845|title= Der Esslinger Botanische Reiseverein|website= lehmanns.de |access-date=August 1, 2020}} and distributed several exsiccata-like specimen series, examples being Unio itineraria 1832 and Schimperi iter Abyssinicum. Sectio prima: plantae Adoёnses.{{Cite web |title=Unio itineraria 1832: IndExs ExsiccataID=1421851903 |website=IndExs - Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1421851903 |access-date=8 December 2024}}{{Cite web |title=Schimperi iter Abyssinicum. Sectio prima: plantae Adoёnses: IndExs ExsiccataID=2133427711 |website=IndExs - Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=2133427711 |access-date=8 December 2024}}Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. After 1842 Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker distributed material collected by Schimper under various titles, an example being Plantarum Arabiae Petraeae imprimis montis Sinai species ... collectas a Guillmo Schimper nominibus a Prof. Ch. F. Hochstetter recognitis secunda vice edidit R. F. Hohenacker. 1843.{{Cite web |title=Plantarum Arabiae Petraeae imprimis montis Sinai species ... collectas a Guillmo Schimper nominibus a Prof. Ch. F. Hochstetter recognitis secunda vice edidit R. F. Hohenacker. 1843: IndExs ExsiccataID=1765555071 |website=IndExs - Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1765555071 |access-date=8 December 2024}}
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 in 1870 and are now kept in the British Library. They are available online in the public domain.Schimper, Georg Wilhelm: [http://www.ghil.ac.uk/Schimper In Abyssinia. Observations on Tigre] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919155922/http://www.ghil.ac.uk/Schimper |date=2015-09-19 }}. Ed. by Andreas Gestrich and Dorothea McEwan. Critical online edition, 2015
Schimper died at Adwa in Tigray, Ethiopia .
Taxa and Botanical Legacy
His name is commemorated by the botanical genera Schimpera (family Brassicaceae),{{cite web |title=Schimpera Steud. & Hochst. ex Endl. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:13018-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=25 May 2021 |language=en}} Schimperella (now a synonym of Oreoschimperella {{small|Rauschert}}{{cite web |title=Schimperella H.Wolff {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:40493-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=7 December 2021 |language=en}}) and Schimperina (now a synonym of Agelanthus {{small|Tiegh.}}).{{cite web |title=Schimperina Tiegh. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:25327-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=7 December 2021 |language=en}}
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,{{cite web |title=Pyrrosia schimperiana (Mett.) Alston {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:17416580-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=7 December 2021 |language=en}}), Festuca schimperiana and Kalanchoe schimperiana.[http://www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Kalanchoe-schimperiana.htm Kew Royal Botanic Gardens] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215073553/http://www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Kalanchoe-schimperiana.htm |date=2013-12-15 }} Kalanchoe schimperiana
Specimens collected by Schimper are cared for at multiple institutions, including the National Museum of Natural History, France, Plantentuin Meise, Botanische Staatssammlung München and the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.{{Cite web| url = https://bionomia.net/Q72899/deposited-at| title = Specimens deposited at. | website = Bionomia| access-date = 15 November 2024}}
{{Botanist|G.W.Schimp.|Schimper, Georg Heinrich Wilhelm}}
References
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Notes
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- "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
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=2ndDtX-RjYkC&pg=PA2405 CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: R-Z] by Umberto Quattrocchi
- [http://exist.ghil.ac.uk:8079/Schimper/index.html Georg Wilhelm Schimper - in Abyssinia. Observations on Tigre – Online Edition] at German Historical Institute London
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Category:People from Nürnberger Land
Category:Scientists from the Kingdom of Bavaria