Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: 1806 births | 1872 deaths | Austrian botanists | Austrian explorers | Botanists active in Africa | Pteridologists | Mycologists
Friedrich Welwitsch
Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch (1806 – October 20, 1872) was an Austrian explorer and botanist.
Friedrich Welwitsch was born in Austria where he worked for some time as a theatre critic. Later he fled to Portugal where he started to work as a plant collector. Several years later he was sent to Angola by the Portuguese government where he made over 5000 collections during 12 years in the country. Some were completely new to science at that time and contained large amount of useful information.
When he returned from Angola Welwitsch decided to settle in London to stay close to the Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He worked there until his death in 1872.
After his death the Portuguese Government (who funded his collections) took the executors of his estate to court to try to retrieve the collections. After a long court battle which lasted 3 years a compromise was reached - the Portuguese Government got the first set of duplicates and the Natural History Museum received the second set.
Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. His tombstone is decorated with an engraving of Welwitschia.
The standard botanical author abbreviation Welw. is applied to species he described.
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