Lewis David de Schweinitz (13 February 1780 - 8 February 1834) was an American botanist and mycologist. He is considered by some the "Father of North American Mycology",[1] but also made significant contributions to botany. He described Dibotryon morbosum (Schwein.) Theiss. & Syd., 1915, as well as Cantherellus (now Gomphus) floccosus in 1832.

His birthplace, the Gemeinhaus-Lewis David de Schweinitz Residence, is a National Historic Landmark in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.[2][3]

Contents

Education

In 1787 Schweinitz was placed in the institution of the Moravian community at Nazareth, where he remained for 11 years and was a successful and industrious student.[4] Schweinitz later entered the Theological seminary at Niesky (Prussia) in 1798. In 1805, he published the Conspectus Fungorum in Lusatiae in collaboration with his teacher, Professor J.B. Albertini. In 1807 he went to Gnadenberg (in Silesia), then subsequently to Gnadau to work as a preacher in the Moravian church. A work appointment in the United States led him on a route through Denmark and Sweden, to avoid Napoleon's operations. This path allowed him to meet with some of the academics at the University of Kiel in Holstein, where he was bestowed with an honorary Ph.D. "in absentia, for his work as an administrator, his cultivation of natural science, and the Conspectus".[5] After returning to the United States in 1812, he settled in Salem, North Carolina, working as an administrator of church estates. The results of his mycological research in this location would later be published as Synopsis Fungorum Carolinæ Superioris in 1822. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 1817.[6] In 1821 he returned to his native village in Pennsylvania and continued his studies until his death.[7]

Selected publications

  • lbertini, J. B. de, Schweinitz, L.D. de. (1805). Conspectus Fungorum in Lusitiæ superioris agro Nieskiensi crescentium e methodo Persooniana. Cum tabulis XII, æneis pictis, species nova XCIII sistendibus. Leipsic.
  • Schweinitz, L. D. de. (1822). Synopsis Fungorum Carolinae Superioris. edita a D. F. Schwaegrichen. Soc. nat. cur. Lips. 4:20-132.
  • _________________ (1825). Description of a number of new American species of Sphaeriae. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 5:3-17.
  • _________________ (1832). Synopsis Fungorum in America Boreali Media Digentium. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. of Phil. N. S. 4:141-318.

Schweinitz' three works on American fungi contain a total of 4,491 species; of these, 1,533 were described as new and 10 new genera were established.[8]


The standard author abbreviation Schw. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[9]

References

  1. ^ Stuckey, R.L. (1979). Type specimens of flowering plants from Eastern North America in the Herbarium of Lewis David von Schweinitz. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. 131:9-51.
  2. ^ "Gemeinhaus-Lewis David de Schweinitz Residence". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
  3. ^ James Sheire (March, 1975), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Gemeinhaus-Lewis David De Schweinitz Residence / Moravian MuseumPDF (32 KB), National Park Service 
  4. ^ Kellerman, W.A. (1886). Sketch of Schweinitz. Journal of Mycology 2(3):31-34.
  5. ^ Rogers, D.P. (1977). L. D. de Schweinitz and Early American Mycology. Mycologia 69(2):223-45.
  6. ^ Arthur, J.C., Bisby, G.R. (1918). An annotated translation of the part of Schweinitz's two papers giving the rusts of North America. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 57(3):173-292.
  7. ^ Morgan, A.P. (1884). Some North American botanists. IX. Lewis David de Schweinitz. Botanical Gazette 9(2):17-19.
  8. ^ Shear, C.L., Stevens, N.E. (1917). Studies of the Schweinitz Collections of Fungi: I: Sketch of his Mycological Work. Mycologia 9(4):191-204.
  9. ^ Brummitt, R. K.; C. E. Powell (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-085-4. 

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_David_de_Schweinitz"


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