Carl Georg Oscar Drude (5 June 1852 in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

– 1 February 1933 in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

) was a German

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

From 1870 he studied science and

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig, relocating to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

the following year, where he was influenced by

August Grisebach August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach (; 17 April 18149 May 1879) was a German botanist and phytogeographer. Biography Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the cloister-school at Ilfeld, and the University of Göttingen. He graduated in me ...

(1814-1879). In 1873 he obtained his PhD and subsequently served as an assistant to

Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling (December 9, 1798 – November 20, 1875) was a German botanist who was a native of Hanover. He studied natural sciences at the University of Göttingen, and in 1818 took a botanical journey through Hungary and Croatia ...

(1798-1875). From 1876 to 1879 he worked as a lecturer in botany at

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, followed by an appointment as chair of botany at Dresden Technical University (1879). Here he served as director of its

botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

, which he systematically configured according to a phytogeographical principle. He remained at

until his retirement in 1920, twice serving as university rector (1906-1907, 1918-1919). Oskar Drude Grab

He is known best for his research in the field of

plant geography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...

, that included mapping of the world's different floristic zones. With

Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with K ...

(1844-1930), he was co-editor of ''Die Vegetation der Erde'' (1896-1928). The plant species ''

Ferula drudeana ''Ferula drudeana'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Central Taurus Mountains area of Turkey. It has been proposed as a candidate for the possibly extinct silphium plant of antiquity. It is known from only t ...

'' was named in his honor.

Principal works

* ''Atlas der Pflanzenverbreitung'', 1887 * ''Handbuch der Pflanzengeographie'', 1890 * ''Deutschlands Pflanzengeographie'', 1896- * ''Die Ökologie der Pflanzen'', 1914.WorldCat Titles
(publications)

References

Drude, Carl Georg Oscar 19th-century German botanists German ecologists 1852 births 1933 deaths Burials at Johannisfriedhof, Dresden Scientists from Braunschweig Scientists from the Duchy of Brunswick TU Braunschweig alumni Academic staff of the University of Göttingen 20th-century German botanists {{Germany-botanist-stub