Moritz Richard Schomburgk

Moritz Richard Schomburgk (5 October 1811, Freyburg – 25 March 1891, Adelaide) was a German botanist.

In 1844 he went on the Prussian-British expedition to Guyana and Brazil, led by his brother Robert. He collected for the Museum of the University of Berlin. After the political turmoil in Europe in 1848, he emigrated to Gawler, South Australia. In 1865, he became Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, a position he kept until his death and was succeeded by Maurice William Holtze. He wrote Versuch einer Zusammenstellung der Flora und Fauna von Britisch-Guiana (1848).

Family

His older brother, Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 - 11 March 1865), carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies (in which Moritz Richard participated) and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for Great Britain in the Dominican Republic and Thailand.

His brother Otto (28 August 1810 – 16 August 1857) emigrated to Australia with Moritz Richard.

His youngest brother, Julius Ludwig, (ca.1818 - 9 March 1893), was chief designer for noted Adelaide silversmith J. M. Wendt.

References

• A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS.
• Walter E. Roth (ed. and trans.), Richard Schomburgk’s Travels in British Guiana 1840–1844, 2 vols (Georgetown: Daily Chronicle Office, 1922, 1923).

External links

• Schomburgk, Moritz Richard at the Australian Dictionary of Biography