Joseph Francis Rock

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Joseph Rock

Joseph Francis Charles Rock (actually Joseph Franz Karl Rock ; born January 13, 1884 in Vienna , † December 5, 1962 in Honolulu , Hawaii ) was an Austrian-American researcher , geographer , linguist and botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Rock ".

biography

J. Rock's house near Lijiang (2010)
J. Rock's house near Lijiang (2010)

In 1902 Rock published his first book, a German-Chinese conversation lexicon. A tuberculosis illness forced him to move to Hawaii in 1907, where he became an expert on the flora there and, for example, was the first to discover and describe the genus Hibiscadelphus . Between 1909 and 1920 he published over 40 articles on newly discovered plant species in Hawaii.

In 1921 he went to China for the first time on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution ; From then on, several research trips took him to Asia, first to Burma and then from 1922 to 1949 to China , where he spent most of the time exploring the flora, the people and the languages ​​in southwestern China, mainly in Yunnan , Sichuan , Gansu and im study eastern Tibet . Expeditions took him to Muli , the mountain Gongga Shan , the three holy mountains Shenrezig, Jambeyang and Chanadorje as well as the river Saluen . He collected over 10,000 plants in 27 years, which are still cultivated in the Arnold Arboretum (a herbarium and botanical garden of Harvard University in Massachusetts ) or are kept as herbarium evidence. During this time, Rock lived in Nguluko (Yuhu), a village near Lijiang , where his former home is now a museum. He wrote articles about his experiences in National Geographic Magazine , which are said to have served the writer James Hilton as the inspiration for his novel The Lost Horizon .

In August 1949 he moved back to Honolulu, where he died of a myocardial infarction in 1962 .

effect

Rock is considered to be one of the most renowned researchers of the Hawaiian and Chinese flora.

His treatises on the Naxi Kingdom and the establishment of an extensive library in Lijiang are also invaluable to linguists and ethnologists. In 1963 a 1094 page dictionary of the Naxi language was published .

Honors and Dedication Names

In 2014 in Vienna's inner city (1st district) the Rock Park at the Mölker Bastei was named after Joseph Francis Rock. Furthermore, he is honored in the epithet of the plant genus Rockia Heimerl (today placed under the genus Pisonia ) from the family of the miracle flower plants (Nyctaginaceae).

Works

  • The indigenous trees of the Hawaiian Islands . 1913.
  • A monographic study of the Hawaiian species of the tribe Lobelioideae, family Campanulaceae . Honolulu 1919
  • The Amnye Ma-chhen range and adjacent regions . Roma 1956
  • Expedition to Amnye Machhen in southwest China in 1926 as reflected in diaries and letters . Edited by Hartmut Walravens. Wiesbaden 2003. ISBN 3-447-04635-X
  • Phytogeography of Northwest and Southwest China Ed. By Hartmut Walravens. 2010

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Zander : Zander hand dictionary of plant names. Edited by Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rock, Joseph Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rock, Josef Franz Karl; Rock, Joseph Francis Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American researcher, geographer, linguist and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1962
Place of death Honolulu , Hawaii