Georg Volkens

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Georg Volkens around 1905

Georg Ludwig August Volkens (born July 13, 1855 in Berlin ; † January 10, 1917 there ) was a Prussian , German botanist who was best known for his geobotanical work in Africa. Its botanical author abbreviation is " Volkens ".

biography

Volkens studied natural sciences at the Berlin Humboldt University, then known as the Friedrich Wilhelms University, and the University of Würzburg .

His studies were mainly shaped by the botanists Alexander Braun , Julius Sachs and Simon Schwendener . Volkens received his doctorate from Schwenderner in 1882 with his work on water excretion in liquid form on the leaves of higher plants . From 1884 to 1885 he traveled to Egypt on behalf of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , where he carried out studies for his work The flora of the Egyptian-Arabian desert, based on anatomical and physical research , with which he received his habilitation in 1887. From 1887 to 1889 he worked as an unpaid volunteer with Adolf Engler at the Botanical Museum in Berlin, subsequently becoming a private lecturer in botany at the Berlin University.

From 1892 to 1894 Volkens went to Africa and was involved in the establishment of the scientific station on Kilimanjaro on behalf of the Academy of Sciences and the Reich Colonial Office ; from 1894 he was a colonial botanist in the German Colonial Society in Berlin-Charlottenburg . In 1895 Volkens received the title of professor and in 1897 he went back to the Botanical Museum Berlin as an extraordinary research assistant, where he was employed as a curator a year later and was primarily involved in the administration of the Botanical Central Office for the Colonies.

From 1899 to 1900 Volkens was assigned to an expedition to the South Seas, which was supposed to change the flag on the Caroline Islands ; Volkens should study the botany of the Carolines and Mariana Islands and estimate the economic value. From 1901 to 1902 he traveled to Java , where he had to do colonial botanical tasks at the Botanical Garden in Buitenzorg . After his return he devoted himself mainly to the tasks in the museum, and until 1910 he also held regular lectures at various Berlin institutes. Volkens died in his hometown in 1917.

Works

Georg Volkens, together with Alexander Tschirch , Emil Heinricher , Heinrich Schenck and in particular Gottlieb Haberlandt, as the founder of physiological plant anatomy, continued the work of Simon Schwendener , who mainly dealt with the physical principles of plant structure. He published among other things

  • Via water excretion in liquid form on the leaves of higher plants. Berlin 1882 (dissertation)
  • About the relationship between the location and structure of the plants. Yearbooks of the Botanical Garden III, pp. 1–46. Berlin 1884.
  • The flora of the Egyptian-Arabian desert, presented on the basis of anatomical-physical research. Berlin 1887.
  • About plants with varnished leaves. Reports of the German Botanical Society VIII, pp. 120–140, plate VIII. 1890.
  • Chenopodiaceae . In: Engler-Prantl Natural plant families. III, 1, a, pp. 36-91. 1892.
  • Mount Kilimanjaro. Berlin 1897.
  • About the pollination of some Loranthaceae and Proteae . Festschrift for Schwendener. Pp. 251-270. Berlin 1899.
  • The vegetation conditions of the Carolines. In Engler's Botanical Yearbooks XXXI, pp. 412–477. 1901.
  • The crops of Togo . Botanical garden note sheet. Appendix XXII, 1909 and 1910.
  • Leaf fall and leaf renewal in the tropics , Berlin 1912

Honors

A number of plant species have been named after Georg Volkens because of their achievements in botany, including the dogwood Cornus volkensii , Aloe volkensii , the gardenia Gardenia volkensii , the linseed Linum volkensii , the bow hemp Sansevieria volkensii and the peperomia Peperomia volkensii . The plant genera Volkensia O.Hoffm. from the sunflower family (Asteraceae), Volkensiella H.Wolff from the umbelliferae family (Apiaceae), Volkensinia Schinz from the foxtail family (Amaranthaceae) and Volkensiophyton Lindau from the acanthus family (Acanthaceae) are named after him.

Individual evidence

  1. Vera Eisnerova: Evolution theory and ecology in botany. In: Ilse Jahn (Ed.): History of Biology. 3rd edition, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag Heidelberg 2000 (Nikol-Verlagsgesellschaft Hamburg 2004 edition), ISBN 3-937872-01-9 , pp. 322–323.
  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 .

literature

  • V OLKENS , G EORG In: Ilse Jahn : History of Biology. Theories, methods, institutions, short biographies. 3rd edition, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag Heidelberg 2000 (Nikol-Verlagsgesellschaft Hamburg 2004 edition), p. 983; ISBN 3-937872-01-9
  • Report on the Botanical Garden and the Botanical Museum in Berlin-Dahlem from April 1, 1916 to March 31, 1917. In it: Personnel matters memo sheet of the Konigl. Botanical Garden and Museum in Berlin-Dahlem (Post Steglitz), as well as the Botanical Central Office for the German Colonies 64 (VII), September 1, 1917; Pp. 17-18. ( PDF )

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