science · 02 February 1809 · 215 years ago
birth
Born 2 Feb 1809; died 4 Feb 1884 at age 75.
German-American botanist and physician, who varied his career in medical practice with botanical travels. After obtaining his medical degree in Europe, he travelled to the U.S. and eventually settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Among his 100 papers documenting western North American flora, his monograph on the cactus, Monography of North American Cuscutinae (1842), is particularly noteworthy. Engelmann collaborated to incorporate a major botanical collection in the public Shaw's Gardens established by businessman Henry Shaw (1800-89) in St. Louis, which is now the Missouri Botanical Garden. The Engelmann spruce of the Rocky Mountains is named for him.
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