Eduard Friedrich Poeppig

Poeppig was born in Plauen, Saxony. He studied medicine and natural history at the University of Leipzig, graduating with a medical degree. On graduation, the rector of the university gave him a botanical mission to North and South America. He was helped out financially by a small group of friends and scientists in Leipzig, that included botanist Christian Friedrich Schwägrichen, who in exchange, received sets of specimens.[1] He subsequently worked as a naturalist in Cuba (1823–24) and Pennsylvania (1824–26). In 1826 he departed for Valparaiso, Chile, and spent several years performing scientific exploration throughout Chile, Peru and Brazil.[2] As a result of his journey in South America, he published "Reise in Chile, Peru und auf dem Amazonenstrome, während der Jahre 1827-1832 " (2 volumes).[1]

In the autumn of 1832, he returned to Germany with significant zoological and botanical collections — several hundred stuffed animals, a collection of ethnographic objects, and more than 17,000 dried plants.[1][3] During the following year, he became an associate professor at the University of Leipzig, where in 1834 he was named director of its zoological museum. In 1846 he attained a full professorship at Leipzig, a position he maintained until his death in 1868.[2][4] He contributed to the establishment of a scientific museum in Leipzig, and bequeathed to it some of his collections, with the remainder being sent to museums in Berlin and Vienna.[1]

In South America he described numerous new species of plants. His botanical magnum opus, Nova genera ac Species Plantarum quas in regno, Chiliensi, Peruviano, ac Terra Amazonica, anni 1827-1832 lectarum, was published in three volumes. In it he described 31 new genera, and 477 new species. For the first two volumes he collaborated with Stephan Endlicher.[1]

The plant genus Poeppigia is named after him, as are taxa with the specific epithets of poeppigi,[5] poeppigii, and poeppigiana,[1][6] a few examples being: the silvery woolly monkey (Lagothrix poeppigii ), the snake Atractus poeppigi,[5] the toad Rhinella poeppigii,[7] the orchid Campylocentrum poeppigii (Rchb. f.) Rolfe, and the angiosperm species Guatteria poeppigiana Mart..[8]

• Fragmentum synopseos plantarum phanerogamarum, (1833). (in Latin).
• Selbstanzeige der Reisebeschreibung in Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, (1835). (in German).
• Reise in Chile, Peru und auf dem Amazonenstrome während der Jahre 1827–1832 (Travel in Chile, Peru, and on the Amazon river during the years 1827–1832), 2 volumes (1834-36). (in German).
• Nova genera ac species plantarum, quas in regno Chilensi Peruviano et in terra Amazonica: annis MDCCCXXVII ad MDCCCXXXII (with Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher), (1835–45). (in Latin).
• Reise nach den Vereinigten Staaten (Travel to the United States), (1837). (in German).
• Über alte und neue Handelswege nach der Westküste Amerikas (On old and new trade routes to the west coast of the Americas), (1838). (in German).
• Landschaftliche Ansichten und erlauternde Darstellungen (Views of countryside with explanation), (1839). (in German).

Poeppig was a primary contributor of ethnological, geographical, and biological articles about the Americas for the Allgemeine Encyclopaedie, edited by Ersch and Gruber.[1]

• Category:Taxa named by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig

• Urban, Ignaz. Notae biographicae, Symb. Antill. 3:103,1900.
• Parts of this article are based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia.
• CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: M-Q by Umberto Quattrocchi.
• Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Poeppig, Eduard" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.