Herbert Franz Josef Huber (1 January 1931 – 1 October 2005) 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 ...

. At the time of his death in 2005 he was professor emeritus at the

University of Kaiserslautern The University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (German: ''Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau'', also known as RPTU) is a public research university in Kaiserslautern and Landau in der Pfalz, Germany. The university wa ...

, Germany. He is known for his contributions to the classification of

angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. T ...

Life

He was the son of biology professor at the Theological-Philosophical College at Dillingen, where he grew up. He studied under

Hermann Merxmüller Hermann Merxmüller (30 August 1920 Munich – 8 February 1988) was a German botanist and taxonomist. Merxmüller's interest in botany was noticed at an early age by his mentors, and he was encouraged to collect in the Bavarian Alps and count ...

in Munich and completed a thesis there on ''

Ceropegia ''Ceropegia'' is a genus of plants within the family Apocynaceae, native to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus, who first described this genus in his ''Genera plantarum'', which appeared in 1737. Linnaeus referr ...

'' in 1958. After graduating he took up a position as curator at the Botanic Garden at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

, and from there he became professor of botany at the University of Mérida, Venezuela. On returning to Germany he became chair of the Hamburg

Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

, before taking up the position at Kaiserslautern where he remained till retirement.

Work

Huber was one of the first scientists to challenge the traditional division of angiosperms into

monocotyledons Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks and ...

and

dicotyledons The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...

, on morphological grounds. He was also amongst the first

taxonomists In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon), and these groups are given ...

to suggest that the vast

Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fai ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

be broken up into smaller family units. His contributions did not meet a wide audience outside of his own country since he mainly wrote in German, and publishing in the ''Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung München''. It was at Munich that his most influential paper ''Die Samenmerkmale und Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse der Liliiflorae'' (1969) was written, a detailed study of the seeds of

Liliiflorae Lilianae (also known as Liliiflorae) is a botanical name for a superorder (that is, a rank higher than that of order) of flowering plants. Such a superorder of necessity includes the type family Liliaceae (and usually the type order Liliales). Ter ...

and in particular the Liliaceae, in which he proposed splitting the family into two, the 'Asparagoid'

and the 'Colchicoid' Lilliiflorae. Huber's narrower conception of families, was an important stepping stone towards the eventual family structure produced by the

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) is an informal international group of systematic botanists who collaborate to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants (angiosperms) that reflects new knowledge about plant relationships disc ...

. When Dahlgren and Clifford published their study of families of monocotyledons (1985) they developed and popularised Huber's concept, giving rise to the formation of a new

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

, the

Asparagales Asparagales (asparagoid lilies) are a diverse order of flowering plants in the monocots. Under the APG IV system of flowering plant classification, Asparagales are the largest order of monocots with 14 families, 1,122 genera, and about 36,00 ...

. Other important work deals with the Rosiflorae (''sensu'' Dahlgren), the classification of dicotyledons and seed anatomy.

Legacy

The genus '' Hubera'' was named after him.

Selected publications

* Huber, H. (1955) ''Ceropegia humbertii'' Mitt. Bot. Staatssamml. Munchen, Heft 12: 72. * Huber, H. (1985)

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

, pp. 1–75. In: Dassanayake, M.D. & Fosberg, F.R. (eds.), ''A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon'', 5. Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi, 476 pp * * *

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huber, Herbert 20th-century German botanists German taxonomists 1931 births 2005 deaths