Hans Schinz (6 December 1858 – 30 October 1941) was a Swiss explorer and

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

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. In 1884 he participated in an exploratory expedition to

German Southwest Africa German South West Africa () was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. German rule over this territory was punctuated by ...

that was organized by German merchant Adolf Lüderitz (1834–1886). For the next few years Schinz undertook extensive scientific studies of the northern parts of the colony. As a result of the expedition, he published ''Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Forschungsreisen durch die deutschen Schutzgebiete Groß- Nama- und Hereroland, nach dem Kunene, dem Ngamisee und Kalahari 1884-1887'' (German South West Africa: Research Expedition of Herero and Nama Country, the

Kunene Region Kunene is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Opuwo, its governor is Vipuakuje Muharukua. The region's name comes from the Kunene River which forms the northern border with Angola. Geography Besides the capital Opuwo, the reg ...

, Lake Ngami and the

Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...

; 1884–1887). This work was an important scientific,

geographic Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

and

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

study of the colony, and was one of the first comprehensive works on the

Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa (present-day Namibia). The apartheid government stat ...

region. It was during this expedition that he made the acquaintance of the Finnish missionary Martti Rautanen (1845–1926) at Olukonda, and named the tree '' Ricinodendron rautanenii'' after him. Casa Bio website, ''Genus Neorautanenia''
/ref> Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science website, ''Rautanen, Reverend Martti (plant collection)'', article dated May 26, 2020
/ref> In 1889 he received his habilitation at

, where in 1895 he became a professor and director of the botanical gardens. With Robert Keller (1854–1939), he was the author of ''Flora der Schweiz'', a work on Swiss flora that published over several editions from 1900 to 1923. Several taxa have been named in his honour; In 1889, Swiss botanist

Victor Fayod Victor Fayod (23 November 1860 – 28 April 1900) was a Swiss mycology, mycologist who created an influential novel classification of the agaric Fungus, fungi and described a number of new genera and species. Biographical overview Fayod was b ...

published '' Schinzinia'', which is a fungal

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 ...

in the family

Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publishe ...

. Also in 1889, ''Melioschinzia'' (in the

Meliaceae Meliaceae, the mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs (and a few herbaceous plants, mangroves) in the order Sapindales. They are characterised by alternate, usually pinnate leaves without stipules, and by syncarp ...

family), was published by K.Schum., this genus is now a synonym of '' Chisocheton''. ''Schinzafra'' (in Bruniaceae family) was published by Kuntze in 1891, this genus is now a synonym of '' Thamnea''. Then in 1895, botanist Ernst Friedrich Gilg published '' Schinziella'', a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from Africa, belonging to the family

Gentianaceae Gentianaceae is a family of flowering plants of 105 genera and about 1600 species. Etymology The family takes its name from the genus ''Gentiana'', named after the Illyrian king Gentius. Distribution Distribution is cosmopolitan (species), cosm ...

. Lastly, from the

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

family, '' Schinziophyton'' was published in Kew Bull. 45: 157 (in 1990) by Hutch. ex Radcl.Sm.

Notes

References

*
Biographies of Namibian Personalities
by Klaus Dierks

External links

* Swiss explorers Swiss taxonomists 1858 births 1941 deaths Academic staff of the University of Zurich Swiss Protestants 19th-century Swiss botanists 20th-century Swiss botanists {{Switzerland-botanist-stub

See also

Notes

References

External links