Johannes Groenland (also spelled Grönland and called "Jean Groenland," 1824–1891) 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 ...

horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

, and

microscopist Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical, el ...

Early life

He was born on 8 April 1824 in Altona, a borough of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

that was part of the

Duchy of Holstein The Duchy of Holstein (; ) was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had his County of Holstein-Rendsburg elevated to a duchy ...

at that time. He was the son of Johann Friedrich Grönland, a German organist and music teacher.Magnus, Paul. (1892)
Nachruf
bituary in German ''Verhandlungen des Botanischen Vereins für die Provinz Brandenburg, 33'', 49-51. Retrieved 14 September 2012 fro
Biodiversity Heritage Library

Career

Early career, First Schleswig War

Groenland was trained in pharmacology in his youth and served as a pharmacist in Altona,

, and

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

in his early 20s. In 1849, he joined the Schleswig-Holstein army to fight in the

First Schleswig War The First Schleswig War (), also known as the Schleswig-Holstein uprising () and the Three Years' War (), was a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig–Holstein question: who should control the Du ...

Life in Paris

After the war, Groenland moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to work as an assistant to Louis de Vilmorin, a French biologist and horticulturist who was also a member of the family firm Vilmorin-Andrieux.Stafleu, F.A., & Cowan, R.S. (2009). Groenland, Johannes. ''Taxonomic Literature: Supplement 8''. Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema. While working for Vilmorin, Groenland worked with Theodor Rümpler to prepare the German edition of ''Les fleurs de pleine terre'' (''Vilmorin's illustrierte Blumengärtnerei'').Johannes Grönland
bituary In ''Annals of Horticulture in North America''. (1891). Retrieved 14 September 2012 from HathiTrust. Groenland spent almost twenty years living in Paris working as a botanical researcher and horticulturist. He was a founding member of the

Société botanique de France The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its di ...

and was known for his work creating hybrids by crossing '' Triticum vulgare'' with various species of ''

Aegilops ''Aegilops'' is a genus of Eurasian and North American plants in the grass family, Poaceae. They are known generally as goatgrasses.

''. His botanical research also focused on

liverworts Liverworts are a group of non-vascular plant, non-vascular embryophyte, land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in wh ...

seagrasses Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the or ...

, and the genus ''

Drosera ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genus, genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucil ...

''; and he served as the editor of the journal ''Revue horticole''. In addition to his research and writing, Groenland developed skills in preparing botanical slides while living in Paris. He ran his own microscopist business from his residence at 13 Rue des Boulangers, and along with Marie Maxime Cornu and Gabriel Rivet, he wrote ''Des préparations microscopiques tirées du regne végétal'', which was commonly used in the 19th century as a textbook on the preparation of microscope slides.Stevenson, Brian. (2012, January)
Johannes Grönland, 1824-1891
''Historical Makers of Microscopes and Microscope Slides''. Retrieved 14 September 2012 from Microscopist.net.

Move to Dahme

Groenland and his wife left Paris in May 1871 after the conclusion of the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. They settled in Dahme, Germany, where he worked as a botanist and professor of natural sciences at the Agricultural and Agricultural Chemistry Research Station until his death on 13 February 1891. At that time, he was also an active and important member of the Botanischer Verein der Provinz Brandenburg.

Legacy

The genus ''

Groenlandia ''Groenlandia'' is a monotypic genus of aquatic plants (pondweed) of the family Potamogetonaceae. The only species in the genus is ''Groenlandia densa''. Opposite-leaved pondweed is a common name for this plant. It is native to much of Europe, w ...

'' in the family

Potamogetonaceae The Potamogetonaceae, commonly referred to as the pondweed family, is an aquatic family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. The roughly 110 known species are divided over five genera. The largest genus in the family by far is '' Potamogeton'', ...

(pondweed) is named in his honor.

Selected works

* ''Mémoire sur la germination de quelques hépatiques'' (1854) *
Note sur l’Holcus setiger
' (1855) * ''Note sur les organs glanduleux du genre Drosera'' (1856) * ''Note sur l’hybridation du genre Aegilops'' (1857) * ''Note sur les hybrids du genre Aegilops'' (1862) * ''Histoire naturelle ilustrée: végétaux'' (1870) *
Des préparations microscopiques tirées du regne végétal
' (1872) * ''Vilmorin's illustrierte Blumengärtnerei'' (1872-5)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Groenland, Johannes 1824 births 1891 deaths People from Altona, Hamburg People from the Duchy of Holstein 19th-century German botanists German horticulturists Microscopists Scientists from Hamburg