Franz Xaver Heller

Franz Xaver Heller (born December 28, 1778 in Würzburg , † December 20, 1840 there ) was a German botanist and doctor. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " F.Heller "

His father Ignaz Heller was a senior journeyman as a gardener from 1779 and head botanical gardener at the Juliusspital in Würzburg from 1786 to 1798 . Heller studied medicine and surgery in Würzburg and received his doctorate there in 1800 with a dissertation on the reproductive organs of plants. In 1803 he became associate professor and full professor for medical botany in Würzburg in 1805. From 1806 to 1840 he was Gabriel Heilmann's successor and chairman of the Botanical Garden. In 1828/29 he was rector of the Julius Maximilians University . He also worked as a resident doctor with a large practice in Würzburg.

He published a description of the plants in the Grand Duchy of Würzburg (from the Rhön to the Steigerwald in the east and the Taubertal in the south). His work earned him a lot of recognition, he received the gold medal of merit of the prince-prince Karl Theodor von Dalberg and in 1817 a call to a chair in the Netherlands . On the other hand, he received criticism in Würzburg social circles because in the foreword of his book he criticized the lovers of exotic plants for neglecting the native flora.

In 1824 the genus Helleria Nees & Mart. , 1824 (today in Vantanea ) the Humiriaceae named after him and his brother Georg. In 1828 he became a corresponding member of the Medical-Botanical Society in London.

After his death, his herbarium went to the botany professor August Schenk (1815-1891) and through him to the University of Würzburg.

Fonts

Flora Wirceburgensis, 2 volumes, Würzburg 1810, 1811, supplement to 1815, archive

Web links

Biography at the herbarium of the University of Würzburg
Author entry and list of the described plant names for Franz Xaver Heller at the IPNI

Individual evidence

↑ Uwe Boschbom: The development of the Würzburg Botanical Garden. In: Peter Baumgart (Ed.): Four hundred years of the University of Würzburg. A commemorative publication. Degener & Co. (Gerhard Gessner), Neustadt an der Aisch 1982 (= sources and contributions to the history of the University of Würzburg. Volume 6), ISBN 3-7686-9062-8 , pp. 567-600; here: p. 575 and 581.

personal data
SURNAME	Heller, Franz Xaver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	F.Heller (botanical author abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German botanist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 28, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH	December 20, 1840
Place of death	Wurzburg

[1] Uwe Boschbom: The development of the Würzburg Botanical Garden. In: Peter Baumgart (Ed.): Four hundred years of the University of Würzburg. A commemorative publication. Degener & Co. (Gerhard Gessner), Neustadt an der Aisch 1982 (= sources and contributions to the history of the University of Würzburg. Volume 6), ISBN 3-7686-9062-8 , pp. 567-600; here: p. 575 and 581.