Ludolph Christian Treviranus

Life and work

The story behind the role.

German botanist (1779-1864).

Ludolph Christian Treviranus (18 September 1779 in Bremen – 6 May 1864 in Bonn) was a German botanist born in Bremen. He was a younger brother to naturalist Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (1776–1837). In 1801 he earned his doctorate at the University of Jena, where he had as instructors; botanist August Batsch (1761–1802) and philosophers Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) and Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814). In 1807 he was a professor at the Lyceum at Bremen, and in 1812 became a professor of natural history and botany at the University of Rostock, where he was also director of the botanical gardens. In 1816 he replaced Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link (1767–1851) as professor of botany at the University of Breslau, and in 1820 transferred to the University of Bonn, where he was successor to Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (1776–1858). Treviranus remained at Bonn until his death in 1864. In his earlier studies, he worked mostly in the fields of plant anatomy and physiology, afterwards focusing on taxonomic issues. Between 1815 and 1828, he published noted works on the sexuality and embryology of phanerogams. He is credited for discovery of the intercellular space in a plant's parenchyma. The botanical genus Trevirana (Gesneriaceae) was named in his honor by Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812).

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