August Weberbauer

August Weberbauer (born November 26, 1871 in Breslau , † January 16, 1948 in Lima , Peru ) was a German biologist and pioneer in researching the flora of Peru and the Andes . At the University of Lima he held the chair for pharmaceutical botany for ten years . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Weberb. "

Academic career

Weberbauer was born on November 26, 1871 as the son of the mycologist Otto Weberbauer (1846–1881) and his wife Antonia Weberbauer, nee. Adamczyk was born in Wroclaw. After graduating from high school in Glatz in 1890, he studied natural sciences with a major in biology at various German universities ( Breslau , Berlin and Heidelberg) and received his doctorate in Berlin in 1894. In 1898 he completed his habilitation in Breslau. During his studies he became a member of the VDSt Breslau and the Association of German Students in Berlin .

Activity in Peru and Cameroon

From 1901 to 1905 he traveled to Peru for the first time and explored the flora there. He sent his collected plants to the Royal Museum in Dahlem near Berlin for processing and identification . After two years (1906 and 1907) as director of the botanical garden in Victoria , German Cameroon , Weberbauer took over the management of the zoological garden and the botanical garden in Lima, Peru in 1908. In 1914 he gave up this activity in order to be able to do more independent and more intensive research in Peru.

After he had worked in the meantime as an employee of a mining company in the province of Huaura , as well as a teacher at the boys' school "Instituto de Lima" and the German school Lima , he received a chair for pharmaceutical botany in 1922 at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. He held the chair until 1932. Until his death on January 16, 1948, Weberbauer was director of the botanical seminar at the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos.

Exploration of the flora of Peru

During his teaching activity and afterwards Weberbauer made several trips to research the flora of the Andes (Peru, Bolivia , Chile and Argentina ). He received financial support for this from the Field Museum of Natural History, among others .

Works (excerpt)

In addition to his major work published in 1911, The Plant World of the Peruvian Andes in its basics , which appeared in a Spanish-language, expanded edition in 1945 ( "El mundo vegetal de los Andes peruanos" ), Weberbauer has published a large number of other works that deal primarily with the vegetation of the Andes deal. His other works include u. a .:

• Anatomical and biological studies of the vegetation of the high Andes of Peru . 1905
• Basics of climate and plant distribution in the Peruvian Aden . 1906
• More information about vegetation and climate of the high Andes of Peru . 1907
• The main features of the flora of the Peruvian Andes are shown . 1911
• Plant geography studies in southern Peru . 1912
• The vegetation cover of northern Peru in the Tumbez department and adjacent parts of the Piura department. In: Botanical yearbooks for systematics, plant history and plant geography. Leipzig, Berlin 1929.
• Investigations into the temperature conditions of the soil in the high Andean region of Peru and their importance for plant life . In: Botanical yearbooks for systematics, plant history and plant geography. Leipzig, Berlin 1929
• About the cushion plant Pycnophyllum aristatum and the cushion plants in general . 1931
• The influencia de cambios climáticos y geológicos sobre la flora de la costa peruana . 1939
• Principios de clasificación aplicables a las formaciones vegetales del Perú . 1942

Awards

• In 1948 Weberbauer received the Order El Sol del Perú , an award given by the Peruvian government for special achievements in Peru.
• Curt Backeberg named the genus Weberbauerocereus from the cactus family after Weberbauer. Also the plant genera Weberbauera Gilg & Muschl. from the cruciferous family (Brassicaceae) and Weberbauerella Ulbr. from the legume family (Fabaceae) are named after him.

Web links

• Page about the estate of Dr. Weaver
• Author entry and list of the described plant names for August Weberbauer at the IPNI

literature

• Holger Wittner: August Weberbauer - a Prussian researcher in Peru . In: Cacti and other succulents . Volume 55, Issue 1, pp. 26-27, 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 240.
2. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .