Paul Friedrich August Ascherson

"Asch." redirects here. For other uses, see Asch.
Paul Friedrich August Ascherson.

Paul Friedrich August Ascherson (June 4, 1834 – March 6, 1913) was a German botanist. His author citation is Asch., although Aschers. has been used in the past.

Ascherson was born in Berlin in 1834 as the son of health counsellor. In 1850, he started studying medicine at the University of Berlin, but soon started getting more interested in botany. In 1855, he received his doctorate for a dissertation about the flora of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In the 1850s, he started to botanize in Saxony, including several excursions with Ludwig Schneider and Gustav Maass. In 1860, Ascherson became an assistant at the Botanical Garden in Berlin; in 1865 he also started working at the Royal Herbarium. In 1863, he obtained his habilitation for specific botany and plant geography. In 1873, Ascherson became associate professor at the University of Berlin. He accompanied Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs on his 1873/74 expedition in the Libyan desert. After 1876, he went on further expeditions in Africa, publishing fundamental works about the flora of the continent. In the 1890s he botanized in Jerichower Land and in the Vorharz along with Paul Graebner.

Ascherson is known for combining works about the flora in certain localities with his own observations to write descriptions of the flora of a larger territory. He was also an entomologist. Insect collections made by him in Africa are conserved in Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.[1]

In 1848 botanist Mont. published Aschersonia, which is a genus of fungi in the order Hypocreales and family Clavicipitaceae.[2] and named in Ascherson's honour.[3]

Works

  • Flora der Provinz Brandenburg, der Altmark und des Herzogthums Magdeburg. Zum gebrauche in schulen und auf excursionen. Berlin, August Hirschwald, 1864
  • Catalogus cormophytorum et anthophytorum Serbiae, Bosniae, Hercegovinae, Montis Scodri, Albaniae hucusque cognitorum. Claudiopoli, Typ. N.K. Papp, 1877
  • Synopsis der mitteleuropaïschen Flora. Leipzig : W. Engelmann, 1896
  • Flora des nordostdeutschen flachlandes (ausser Ostpreussen). Berlin, Gebrüder Borntraeger, 1898–99
  • Nordostdeutsche Schulflora : Tabellen zur Bestimmung der wildwachsenden und der häufiger angebauten Blüten- und Farnpflanzen der Provinzen Brandenburg, Pommern, Posen, Ost- und Westpreussen, und Sachsen (Nordhälfte), der Grossherzogtümer Mecklenburg und des Herzogtums Anhalt nach der Flora des nordostdeutschen Flachlandes. Berlin : Borntraeger, 1902
  • Potamogetonaceae. Leipzig : Engelmann, 1907
The standard author abbreviation Asch. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ "Groll, E. K. Biografien der Entomologen der Welt : Datenbank".[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ Montagne JPFC (1848) Sixième Centurie de plantes exotiques nouvelles. Décades I et II. Annales des Sciences Naturelles Botanique. 10: 106-136
  3. ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen [Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. S2CID 246307410. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  4. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Asch.

References