Franz von Fleischer

Franz von Fleischer (27 November 1801, in Lausick – 24 August 1878, in Hohenheim) was a German botanist.

As a young man, he worked as a pharmacist in Dresden and Esslingen. In 1825 he undertook a botanical study trip to the Alps, followed by an extended scientific expedition in 1826/27 that took him to Illyria, Istria, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. The collections were partly distributed by the German scientific society Unio Itineraria as exsiccata-like series.^[1][2] Afterwards, he studied medicine and natural sciences at the University of Tübingen, and following graduation in 1832, he worked as a teacher of natural sciences at the Hofwyl agricultural school in the canton of Bern.^[3][4]

From 1834 to 1840 he taught classes in natural sciences at the cantonal school in Aarau, and afterwards, served as a professor at the Agricultural Academy in Hohenheim. He remained at Hohenheim up until his death in 1878.^[4]

Some plants with the specific epithet of fleischeri commemorate his name, an example being Crocus fleischeri.^[5]

Selected works

• Über die Riedgräser Würtembergs, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der in der Flora von Tübingen einheimischen, 1832 – On the sedges of Württemberg, etc.
• Beiträge zur Lehre von dem Keimen der Samen der Gewächse, insbesondere der Samen ökonomischer Pflanzen, 1851 – Contributions to the theory of germination of seeds, especially seeds of economic plants.
• Ueber Missbildungen verschiedener Culturpflanzen und einiger anderer landwirthschaftlichen Gewächse, 1862 – On malformations of various cultivated plants, etc.^[6]