Hermann Wildpret
Hermann Wildpret , actually Hermann Josef Wildpret , wrongly also German Wildpret (born October 5, 1834 in Warmbach, today a district of Rheinfelden (Baden) ; † December 19, 1908 in Santa Cruz , Tenerife ) was a Swiss gardener and botanist .
Life
Hermann Wildpret was born on October 5, 1834 as the son of Josef Wildpret in the then small fishing village Warmbach on the German bank of the High Rhine , today a district of Rheinfelden in Baden . His father came from the opposite Swiss town of Rheinfelden and, although a Swiss citizen, was the landlord of the “Hirsch” inn in Warmbach at the time. After apprenticeship and journeyman years in Switzerland (stations: Olsberg Abbey , apprenticeship in Aarau , journeyman years in Zurich ) and France ( Besançon ), from 1856 initially as a hired gardener in Santa Cruz on Tenerife, then he became self-employed there as a garden designer and seed dealer . The public green spaces in Santa Cruz, Villa de Orotava (e.g. the garden of the Humboldt Kurhaus) and Puerto de la Cruz , were created through his initiative and under his direction, as were many private gardens (e.g. the garden of the hotel in 1899 "Santa Catalina" on Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, with a - not preserved - dragon tree ).
On August 15, 1860, he took over the position of head gardener of the famous botanical garden Jardin de Aclimatación de la Orotava (also called Botánico for short ) near Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife ( Canary Islands ). Under his leadership (until 1893) the plant diversity in the Botánico was greatly expanded: when he began his activity, 220 species were present, in 1879 there were already 2486 species. The botánico achieved world renown among the wild interpreters and was visited by numerous naturalists . Apart from the Pico del Teide , nothing on the island of Tenerife has been described as often and in such detail in contemporary travelogues as the Botánico . However, when Wildpret's superior asked him to take on Spanish citizenship, Wildpret refused indignantly and ended his employment in 1894. He now devoted himself to the support of his sons, who invested in the hotel business in the course of the then burgeoning Canary Islands tourism, and thus has a not unimportant importance for the development history of this branch in the Canaries.
Wildpret has imported over 5000 species of plants to the Canary Islands, and on the other hand exported many native species (some of which were cultivated) all over the world. He discovered and identified many endemic plants of Tenerife, e.g. B. the Canary Horn Clover (also: Parrot's bill; Spanish: Pico de Paloma; Lotus berthelotii ). This plant is an example of the displacement of endemic species by neophytes . Today no natural occurrences are known of it. It has only survived in culture as an ornamental plant (balcony hanging plant).
In November 1866, Wildpret accompanied the well-known naturalist Ernst Haeckel on his excursion to the Pico del Teide , the first known successful winter ascent of this mountain. Nicolas Baudin had already tried this in 1797, but failed due to inadequate equipment; Wildpret, however, had nail shoes and an ice ax with them.
A great-grandson of Hermann Wildpret, Wolfredo Wildpret de la Torre (1933-), is now director emeritus of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal at the Canary Islands University of La Laguna .
Honors
The plant genus Wildpretina Kuntze from the gentian family (Gentianaceae) is named after Wildpret . Several plant species are named after him, including the symbolic plant of Tenerife , the impressive wild prets adder head ( Echium wildpretii ), popularly known as "The pride of Tenerife" ( Orgullo de Tenerife ).
Web links
- Biography Hermann Josef Wildpret, from: Bolleter, 1910
- Jardín de aclimatación (Orotava Botanical Garden) (Spanish, with historical photos)
- Plant directory of the "Botánico", created by Hermann ('German') Josef Wildpret in collaboration with Nicolás Benítez de Lugo, 1879 (pdf) (8.73 MB)
- Wage claim by Wildpret, Hermann, von Rheinfelden, against the Spanish government for his work as a gardener in the botanical garden of the city of Orotava (Canary Islands) , dossier in the Swiss Federal Archives
literature
- Eugen Bolleter: Pictures and studies from a trip to the Canary Islands . Leipzig: P.Papst, 1910; Chapter 5: Hermann Wildpret, the creator of the fame of the botanical garden in Orotava
- Rafael Matos: Hermann Wildpret, un Suisse à Tenerife au XIXe siècle. Micro-analysis des mécanismes de la diversification , Le Globe, 135, 1995, pp. 159-172
- Rafael Matos: Hermann Wildpret, un suizo en el Tenerife del siglo XIX: microanálisis de los mecanismos de la diversificación , Catharum: revista de ciencias y humanidades. - Tenerife. - No 2 (2000), p. 13–21 (Trad. Del francés, José García Recarte)
- Richard Pott, Joachim Hüppe, Wolfredo Wildpret de la Torre: The Canary Islands. Natural and cultural landscapes , Stuttgart, 2003, ISBN 3-8001-3284-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wildpret, Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss gardener and botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 5, 1834 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rheinfelden (Baden) |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 19, 1908 |
| Place of death | Santa Cruz |