Carl Ludwig Willdenow

Carl Ludwig von Willdenow (August 22, 1765 - July 10, 1812) was a German botanist and pharmacist.

Willdenow was born in Berlin and studied medicine and botany at the university of Halle. He was a director of the botanical garden of Berlin from 1801 until his death. There he studied many South American plants, brought back by the explorer Alexander von Humboldt. He was interested in the adaptation of plants to climate, showing that the same climate had plants having common characteristics. His herbarium, containing more than 20,000 species, is still preserved in Berlin.

The standard botanical author abbreviation Willd. is applied to plants he described.

Works

• Florae Berolinensis prodromus (1787)
• Grundriß der Kräuterkunde (1792)
• Berlinische Baumzucht (1811)
• Linnaei species plantarum (1798-1826, 6 volumes)
• Anleitung zum Selbststudium der Botanik (1804)
• Enumeratio plantarum horti regii botanici Berolinensis (1809)
• Hortas Berolinensis (1816)