Beat Ernst Leuenberger

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Beat Ernst Leuenberger (born August 27, 1946 in Burgdorf ; † May 20, 2010 in Berlin ) was a Swiss botanist and long-time curator of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem . He was a world-renowned specialist for the cactus family of plants (Cactaceae). Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Leuenb. "

Live and act

Beat Ernst Leuenberger visited in his hometown Burgdorf school and started in 1966 a degree in biology at the University of Bern , he with the 1972 Licentiate (nat lic. Phil..) Completed. Leuenberger continued his studies at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . His enthusiasm for cactus plants (Cactaceae), which has existed since his childhood, was reinforced by the influence of Werner Rauh . In 1975 Leuenberger received his doctorate with a thesis on the pollen morphology of the Cactaceae and its importance for systematics . He then worked briefly as an assistant at the Systematic Geobotanical Institute at the University of Bern. In 1976 he began his work at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem , which he would continue to do until the end of his life.

In addition to his work at the herbarium , Leuenberger undertook numerous botanical expeditions, which mostly took him to areas rich in succulent plants . His first large company was in Togo . This was followed by trips to Mexico , Namibia , Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil , Chile and the Guyanas , from which he brought extensive plant material with him to Berlin.

Although Leuenberger was particularly interested in cacti, for example he wrote monographs on the genera Pereskia and Maihuenia , he also contributed to the taxonomy of other plant families, including Aizoaceae , Amaryllidaceae , Melastomataceae , Misodendraceae , Philesiaceae and Welwitschiaceae . Out of the awareness of how complex the taxonomy of plants is, works arose on the cactus herbarium specimens by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland kept in the herbaria of Paris and Berlin , the cacti of the Willdenow herbarium and the type specimens of the cacti in the Berlin herbarium . The biographical abstracts he wrote about Franz Buxbaum , Hans Krainz and Friedrich Ritter testify to his interest in the history of the cactus systematics .

Beat Ernst Leuenberger was married to the botanist Silvia Arroyo . He died of pancreatic cancer .

Honors

The plant genus Leuenbergeria Lodé from the cactus family was named after Leuenberger in 2012 .

literature

  • Urs Eggli: Beat Ernst Leuenberger (1946–2010). A meticulous researcher . In cacti and other succulents . Volume 62, Number 4, 2011, pp. 99-104.
  • Roberto Kiesling: Obituario: Beat Ernst Leuenberger (1946-2010) . In: Boletín de la Sociedad Argentina de Botánica . Volume 45, Number 1/2, 2010, pp. 221–222, (online)
  • Hans Walter Lack, Thomas Raus: Beat Ernst Leuenberger (1946-2010) . In: Willdenowia . Volume 40, number 2, 2010, pp. 369-374, doi : 10.3372 / wi40.40216 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Leuenberger, Beat Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss botanist and long-time curator of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgdorf
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 2010
Place of death Berlin