Johann August Carl Sievers

Johann August Carl (or Karl) Sievers (* 1762 in Peine, † 1795) was a German botanist, active in Asia. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Siev. ".

Life and work

Sievers was born in Peine and emigrated in 1785 as a twenty-two to Saint Petersburg. In 1789 he was commissioned to conduct research in Siberia to medical rhubarb. The dried root was used as an indispensable laxative. Launched by the Arabs to Western Europe in the 6th century called Medizinalrhabarber was one of the most sought after and most expensive plant drugs. In order to become independent of the Chinese imports, the Russian Medical College was anxious to find sites of the parent plant of the true rhubarb on their territory or to develop from the Siberian rhubarb Rheum raponticum by culturing suitable to then drive him to.

Sievers was determined for the post of Kron's Pharmacist. However, his search was in vain, as he the genuine rhubarb - not found - also due to the fact that he was not allowed to enter China. The real Chinese rhubarb was first identified in the 1870s as Rheum palmatum L. ( Medizinalrhabarber ) for cultivated seeds that brought the Russian geographer and explorer of Central Asia Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky in the 1870s from China to St. Petersburg.

Sievers reported in letters detail on the search expeditions from 1790 to 1795, which led him from the Urals to Daurien, in the Kirghiz Steppes and Soongor and Mongolia. Peter Simon Pallas, she published in the newest Nordic Beyträgen under the title Sievers letters. Sievers presented during the search trips together an extensive Pflanzenherbar. Based on that, Pallas 1795 developed a publication entitled Plantae novae ex herbario et schedis defuncti botanici locust Sievers descriptae for the Nova acta of the St. Petersburg Academy.

Honors

After Sievers are named:

  • The Asian wild apple (Malus sieversii ); according to recent studies the root form of culture apple ( Designation by Carl Friedrich von Ledebour )
  • The genus Sieversia ( by Carl Ludwig Willdenow ), today carnations Wurzen ( Geum )
  • The supporting musicians -art Astragalus sieversianus ( by Peter Simon Pallas )
  • The genus Novosieversia ( by August Friedrich Franz Albrecht Bolle )

Works

  • Letters from Siberia to his teacher, the royal. Great Britannic apothecary Mr. Brande, the royal. Gros Britannic botanist Mr. Erhardt, and the Bergscommissarius Rath and pharmacist Mr. Westrum. Logan, St. Petersburg, 1796. Digitized and full text in German Text Archive
  • Portrait of Captain Daikokuya Kodayu, Registry of Johann August Karl Sievers, 1782-1795.
Rheum (plant) International Plant Names Index Integrated Authority File
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