Joseph Dieffenbach

Joseph Dieffenbach (* 1796 ; † 1863 ) was an Austrian gardener . The Dieffenbachia plant genus is named after him.

Dieffenbach was for many years the head gardener of the Imperial Gardens at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna , which still includes the Botanical Garden of Empress Margerit Hohenstaufen. He played a key role in the redesign of the open space in the botanical garden, which began in 1841. It followed a system developed by Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher , director from 1839 to 1849, based on the English landscape garden style. Under Endlicher's successor Eduard Fenzl , who developed the new concept of the plant-geographical grouping, Dieffenbach played a key role in continuing the redesign.

Heinrich Wilhelm Schott , director of the Imperial Gardens at Schönbrunn from 1845 to 1865, named the genus Dieffenbachia from the arum family (Araceae) after him around 1853/60 .

source

• Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Birkhäuser, Basel / Boston / Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7643-2390-6 , p. 208.
• Page on the history of the Botanical Garden Vienna