Hermann Crüger (11 February 1818, Hamburg – 28 February 1864, San Fernando) was a German pharmacist and botanist.
He was educated in pharmacy in Lüneburg and Hamburg prior to moving as a pharmacist to Trinidad in 1841. From 1857 until his death he served as a government botanist and director of the botanical garden in Port-of-Spain. He collected botanical specimens in Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba and Venezuela.[1]
Crüger was considered an important source of information for Charles Darwin on aspects of floral biology.[2] In 1863 Darwin wrote to Crüger in regards to orchids, also inquiring him about the fecundation of certain species from the family Melastomataceae.[1]
He left his herbarium to the botanical garden in Trinidad, and had also sent some specimens to Berlin and to the Kew Gardens.[1] Taxa with the specific epithets of cruegeri, cruegeriana and cruegerianum commemorate his name.[3] He is the taxonomic authority of the flowering plant genus Montrichardia (family Araceae).[4]
Published works edit
References edit
- ^ a b c d JSTOR Global Plants Crueger, Hermann (1818-1864)
- ^ Darwin Online Ghiselin, Michael T. 2009. Darwin: A reader's guide
- ^ Lexikon deutschsprachiger Bryologen, Volume 1 by Jan-Peter Frahm, Jens Eggers
- ^ Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) Montrichardia
- ^ Google Books A Few Notes on the Fecondation of Orchids and Their Morphology
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Crueg.