Philipp (Filip) Maximilian Opiz (5 June 1787 in

Čáslav Čáslav (; ) is a town in Kutná Hora District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division ...

– 20 May 1858 in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) was a Czech-German

forester A forester is a person who practises forest management and forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Fores ...

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 ...

. He made contributions to European botany during the early 19th century. Showing an early interest in botany from childhood, he produced floristic writings and established connections with prominent botanists while working as a government official in various Bohemian towns. Opiz founded the influential "Pflanzentauschanstalt" (plant exchange institution) in Prague in 1819, established a cryptogamic

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 ...

, edited the botanical journal "Naturalientausch" (1826–1828), and created numerous sets of

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 ...

e (dried herbarium specimens) for distribution.

Biography

From childhood, Opiz showed an interest in botany, initially guided by physician A. Steinerer, which led to his early

floristic {{Short pages monitor ''Did you mean: "Floristics Floristics is the study of plants of geographical regions. It is a branch of phytogeography, which technically makes it a branch of botany, geography, and a subbranch of biogeography. Harvard Un ...

writings, including the ''Calendarium Florae'' (1800) and the floristic

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

''Flora Czaslaviensis''. Between 1804 and 1806, he established connections with notable botanists in Prague and conducted botanical excursions across central and northern Bohemia. Beginning in 1805 he served as a

cameral Cameralism ( German: ''Kameralismus'') was a German school of public finance, administration and economic management in the 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed at strong management of a centralized economy for the benefit mainly of the st ...

beamter The German civil servants called ' (men, singular ', more commonly ') (women, singular ') have a privileged legal status compared to other German public employees (called '), who are generally subject to the same laws and regulations as employ ...

in his hometown of

, later working in

Pardubice Pardubice (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Repub ...

(from 1808) and

(from 1814). After serving as an official at the Čáslav pension office, later transferring to Pardubice (1808) and Prague (1814), Opiz significantly promoted the study of lichens, with this period later termed the "Opiz era". In 1818, Opiz established a herbarium called ''Flora cryptogamica Boëmiae'', notable for its extensive collection of lichens. He founded the ''Pflanzentauschanstalt'' in Prague in 1819, a pioneering plant-exchange institution influential across Europe. Additionally, he edited the botanical journal ''Naturalientausch'' (1826–1828), contributed to botanical literature, and became a respected member of multiple European botanical societies. He also created many sets of

exsiccatae 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 specimens or preserved bio ...

(dried herbarium specimens for distribution). In 1831 he became a ''Forstamtsconcipist'' (forestry official). Several species described by Opiz, including lichens such as '' Cetraria ericetorum'', ''

Cladonia stellaris ''Cladonia stellaris'' (star-tipped cup lichen or star reindeer lichen) is an ecologically important species of cup lichen that forms continuous mats over large areas of the ground in boreal and arctic regions around the circumpolar north. The ...

'', and '' Toninia physaroides'', remain accepted today. In 1830

Carl Borivoj Presl Carl Borivoj Presl (; 17 February 1794 – 2 October 1852) was a Czech botanist. Biography Presl lived his entire life in Prague, and was a professor of botany at the University of Prague (1833–52).Opizia'' in his honour.

Selected publications

* ''Deutschlands cryptogamische Gewächse. Ein Anhang zur Flora Deutschlands von Joh. Christ. Röhling'', 1817 - German

cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name ''Cryptogamae'') is a plant, in the broad sense of the word, or a plant-like organism that share similar characteristics, such as being multicellular, photosynthetic, and primarily immobile, that reproduces via sp ...

s; Notes in regards to "Flora Deutschland" by Johann Christoph Röhling. * ''Böheims phänerogamische und cryptogamische gewächse'', 1823 - Bohemian

phanerogam A seed plant or spermatophyte (; New Latin ''spermat-'' and Greek ' (phytón), plant), also known as a phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or a phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte (i.e. la ...

s and cryptogams. * ''Seznam rostlin květeny české'', 1852, Inventory of Czech flora.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Opiz, Philipp Maximilian Botanists from the Austrian Empire 19th-century Czech botanists People from Čáslav 1787 births 1858 deaths German Bohemian people Foresters 19th-century German botanists Czech Technical University in Prague alumni