Franz Carl Mertens (3 April 1764 – 19 June 1831) 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 ...

who was a native of

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

. He specialized in the field of

phycology Phycology () is the scientific study of algae. Also known as algology, phycology is a branch of life science. Algae are important as primary producers in aquatic ecosystems. Most algae are eukaryotic, photosynthetic organisms that live in a ...

. Mertens studied

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

and languages at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

, and after graduation taught classes at

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

Polytechnic College. In his spare time he studied

botany 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 ...

, and through a mutual friend met German botanist

Albrecht Wilhelm Roth Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (6 January 1757 – 16 October 1834) was a physician and botanist born in Dötlingen, Germany. He studied medicine at the Universities of University of Halle, Halle and University of Erlangen, Erlangen, where he received his ...

(1757–1834). With Roth, he took scientific expeditions throughout Europe, including

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. From these trips, Mertens described a number of species of

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

. He also performed illustrative work on Volume 3 of Roth's ''Catalecta botanica''. With

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

professor

Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch (5 March 1771 – 14 November 1849) was a German physician and botanist from Kusel, which at various points in his life was under the Holy Roman Empire, part of France and then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Education ...

(1771–1849), he published the third edition of Johann Christoph Röhling's ''Deutschlands flora'', a five volume treatise on German flora. With Friedrich Heinrich Wilhelm Frölich and

Johannes Nicolaus von Suhr Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Ye ...

he issued the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

-like series ''Hydrophytorum tam indigenorum quam exoticorum collectio, Sammlung von einheimischen und auswärtigen Hydrophyten'' (1829). The plant

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Mertensia ''Mertensia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae. They are perennial herbaceous plants with blue or sometimes white flowers that open from pink-tinged buds. Such a change in flower color is common in Boraginaceae an ...

'' from the family

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the Borago, borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 to 154 genus, genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single famil ...

is named after him, while the

ctenophore Ctenophora (; : ctenophore ) is a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and they ar ...

genus ''Mertensia'' is named after his son

Karl Heinrich Mertens Karl Heinrich Mertens (Russian: Андрей Карлович Мертенс, 17 May 1796 – 29 September 1830 Kronstadt), was a German botanist and naturalist, and son of the botanist Franz Carl Mertens. Mertens was born in Bremen and became in ...

(1796-1830).

References

Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
1764 births 1831 deaths Scientists from Bielefeld 19th-century German botanists German phycologists 18th-century German botanists {{Germany-botanist-stub

See also

References