Joseph Anton Purpus

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Joseph Anton Purpus (born March 4, 1860 in Hahnweilerhof ( Börrstadt ), † December 5, 1932 in Darmstadt ) was the garden inspector of the Darmstadt Botanical Garden and a younger brother of Carl Albert Purpus . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " JAPurpus ".

Live and act

Purpus was born on March 4, 1860 in Hanweiler (today Hahnweiler Hof), where he grew up as the son of the royal Bavarian forester Carl Joseph Purpus. He first attended the Progymnasium in Kirchheimbolanden before completing a horticultural training in Frankfurt am Main in 1876 .

In 1882 Purpus went to Saint Petersburg and worked there at the Botanical Garden under the director Eduard von Regel . In 1887 he traveled to North America and Canada with Georg Dieck and his older brother Carl Albert Purpus . They collected plants in Canada and the following year in the states of Oregon , Washington , Idaho , and Montana in the northwestern United States.

In 1888 the three separated. Joseph Anton Purpus initially trained in various American botanical gardens. While his brother stayed in the United States, Joseph Anton Purpus returned to Europe the following year. Regel tried to use him as an inspector for the greenhouse collections in St. Petersburg, but this failed for political reasons because of Purpus' German origin. Purpus undertook another excursion to the north-west of Russia, which went south to Minsk and Smolensk . Then he was called to Darmstadt by Leopold Dippel , director of the local botanical garden.

There was a family relationship between the Dippel and Purpus families. Leopold Dippel's father, Carl Albert Dippel, was the godfather of Carl Albert Purpus .

Between 1888 and 1925 Purpus was the garden inspector of the Darmstadt Botanical Garden, responsible for building up the cactus and succulent collection . During his period of service, formative buildings such as the service house (1901/1902) and the greenhouses were built. The collection of hardy cacti, which he built up with the help of his brother, achieved particular fame. However, it was destroyed during the Second World War.

In 1907 Purpus went on a research trip to Lapland with Georg Bitter , where they collected arctic plants. The following year he traveled to Mexico with Heinrich Schenck and visited his brother there. They used his hacienda in Veracruz as a base for their excursions. Among other things, they investigated the relationships between plants and ants. In 1920/1921 Purpus undertook this trip again, this time together with his son Hugo. They brought back numerous Mexican plants, especially epiphytes .

Purpus published specialist publications in various magazines such as Möllers Deutsche Gärtner-Zeitung , Gartenflora , Gartenwelt , Zeitschrift für Kakteenkunde , in daily newspapers and the yearbooks of the German Dendrological Society . The first description of Opuntia howeyi was made by him in 1925.

In 1925 Purpus was officially retired as chief inspector, but was still in charge of supervision until April 1, 1928. Among other things, he managed extensive yucca plantings for the purpose of fiber production near Darmstadt and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe .

He died on December 5, 1932 in Darmstadt of a lengthy illness (malaria?) That he contracted while traveling in Mexico.

Honors

In honor of Joseph Anton and Carl Albert Purpus, there is a memorial plaque on the Yucca Hill of the Darmstadt Botanical Garden. It was installed in 2001 as part of a colloquium on the occasion of the 150th birthday of Carl Albert Purpus.

Alfred Rehder named Lonicera × purpusii Rehder , a hybrid of two honeysuckle species that arose spontaneously in the Darmstadt Botanical Garden , after Joseph Anton Purpus. In addition to the more than 200 names that contain purpusii or purpusianus , four species are also dedicated to both brothers through purpus (i) orum .

Publications (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From Thunder Mountain after Zacuapam ( Memento of 10 May 2013 Internet Archive bio.tu-darmstadt.de), accessed on September 7 2012th
  2. ↑ a b c Ulrich Lüttge: History of Botany in Darmstadt , p. 74 ( Memento from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 12.2 MB)
  3. ↑ Barbara Ertter: On the Trail, with Purpus, in California ucjeps.berkeley.edu, accessed September 7, 2012.
  4. ↑ A unique plant in Europe - cycad in the Darmstadt Botanical Garden turns out to be an extremely rare exotic species idw-online.de, accessed on September 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ a b Ulrich Lüttge: History of Botany in Darmstadt , p. 80 ( Memento from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 12.2 MB)
  6. ↑ Ulrich Lüttge: History of Botany in Darmstadt , p. 75/76 ( Memento from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 12.2 MB)
  7. ↑ a b c Ulrich Lüttge: History of Botany in Darmstadt , p. 82 ( Memento from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 12.2 MB)
  8. ^ Announcements of the German Dendrological Society. Berlin 1925, p. 61
  9. ↑ Horticultural-Botanical Letter No. 142. (PDF; 128 kB) Working Group Technical Director of Botanical Gardens eV, 2001/1.
personal data
SURNAME Purpus, Joseph Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Purpus, Josef Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German horticultural inspector
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Hahnweilerhof ( Börrstadt )
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1932
Place of death Darmstadt