Richard Spruce

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Richard Spruce

Richard Spruce (born September 10, 1817 in Ganthorpe, Yorkshire , England , † December 28, 1893 in Coneysthorpe, Yorkshire) was an English botanist and naturalist. He became known as a specialist in Bryophyta ( mosses ) and through his 15-year expedition to South America. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Spruce ".

Life

Richard Spruce was born on September 10, 1817 in Ganthorpe, near Castle Howard , in Yorkshire, to a teacher. From 1839 to 1844 he was employed as a teacher in York . After excursions in Ireland and after an expedition in the Pyrenees from 1845 to 1846 he was recognized as a specialist in mosses and especially liverworts . He repeatedly found and described unknown species. He financed his expeditions by selling collected specimens to museums.

Although he repeatedly had health problems, he set out on an expedition to South America in 1849. There he explored, at times together with Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates , the flora of the Amazon and the Andes . He sent the collected specimens to England to the Royal Botanic Gardens in south-west London. He spent a total of 15 years in Brazil , Venezuela , Peru and Ecuador . In Ecuador he tried to get seeds from the cinchona tree , from whose bark the anti- malarial agent quinine was extracted. He succeeded in sending seeds and young plants to India on behalf of the government.

Through his plant collections and the detailed description of the individual species, he expanded his knowledge of the flora of the Amazon. He was also an attentive observer of the indigenous people and provided precise descriptions of their way of life and culture.

Spruce did not return to England until 1867. In the following years he evaluated his collections as far as his health allowed. At times he was unable to walk several hundred meters or use a microscope. Richard Spruce died in Coneysthorpe, Yorkshire, England on December 28, 1893.

Honors

According to Spruce, the plant genera Neosprucea Sleumer from the willow family (Salicaceae), Sprucina Nied. from the family of the Malpighiaceae and the moss genera Sprucea Wilson & Hook.f. , Spruceanthus Verd. and Sprucella Steph. named.

Fonts (selection)

  • Contributions to Phytologist , a monthly journal of British botany; London Journal of Botany; Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh
  • Hepaticae of the Amazon and the Andes of Peru and Ecuador . 1885 ( online ).
  • Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes . Ed .: Alfred Russel Wallace , 2 volumes, Macmillan and Co. , London 1908 ( doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.102215 ).
    • Notes of a botanist in the Amazon and the Andes. German translation by Michael Uszinski, Verlag der Pioniere, Berlin [2019], ISBN 978-3-941924-07-9

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Spruce, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English botanist and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Ganthorpe, Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1893
Place of death Coneysthorpe, Yorkshire