Heinrich Moritz Willkomm
German botanist
Died when: 74 years 58 days (889 months)Star Sign: Cancer
Heinrich Moritz Willkomm (29 June 1821, Herwigsdorf – 26 August 1895, Schloss Wartenberg in Wartenberg am Rollberg, Bohemia) was a German academic and botanist.The standard author abbreviation Willk. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, later being named a professor of natural history in Tharandt (1855).In 1868 he was appointed professor of botany and director of the botanical garden at the University of Dorpat, and from 1874 to 1892, maintained similar roles at the University of Prague.
In 1844–45 and 1850–51, he collected plants in Spain and Portugal.His main herbarium from these expeditions is kept in Coimbra and his personal herbarium was taken to Genoa.
Following his tenure at Dorpat, he embarked on a scientific excursion to the Balearic Islands.His book Die Wunder des Mikroskops ("The Miracles of the Microscope"; 1856, 4th ed. 1878) contributed to the growing movement to popularize science in Germany.
The grass genus Willkommia (family Poaceae) is named in his honor.He is also honoured in the naming of a fungi genus in 1891, Willkommlangea (jointly with Johan Lange (1818-1898), who was a prominent Danish born botanist).
