Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wallroth
German botanist (1792–1857)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wallroth (13 March 1792 in Breitenstein – 22 March 1857 in Nordhausen) was a German botanist. His name is abbreviated Wallr. as a taxon authority.[1]
Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wallroth | |
|---|---|
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| Born | March 13, 1793 |
| Died | March 22, 1857 (aged 64) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Wallr. |
He attended classes in medicine and botany at the University of Halle, afterwards continuing his studies in Göttingen, where he was a pupil of botanist Heinrich Adolf Schrader (1767-1836). In 1816 he obtained his medical doctorate at the University of Göttingen. In 1822, he was appointed district physician to the city of Nordhausen, where along with his duties as a doctor, he performed botanical research.[2]
Among his writings were a treatise on cryptogams native to Germany, Flora Cryptogamica Germaniae (1831–33), and a study on the biology of lichens, titled Naturgeschichte der Flechten (1825 and 1827). Wallroth issued the exsiccata series Lichenes florae Germaniae exsiccati.[3] Wallroth is credited for introducing the terms "homoiomerous" and "heteromerous" to explain two distinct forms of lichen thallus,[4][5] as well as the terms "epiphloeodal", "hypophloeodal", and gonidium.[6] Wallroth retired in 1855; he died two years later. His extensive herbarium was sold in several separate parts after his death. A large part went, together with some written materials, to the National Museum in Prague.[7]
