One of Kotschy's Finds. Asperula orientalis, Oriental Woodruff, Shaffys Tuin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
On March 24, 1841 the Austrian-Polish naturalist and explorer Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy (1813-1866) collected this flower in the stony hills near Aleppo, Syria. That dried exemplar is today preserved in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University and you'll be able to find a photo of it via Tropicos.org. Kotschy traveled widely in North Africa (including what is today Sudan), Turkey, the Near- and Mideast always collecting plant specimens, well into the hundreds of thousands! Besides being a botanist and naturalist he also studied the cultures and histories of the place through which he traveled. He is considered the father of oriental studies in Austria. This plant was first scientifically described in 1843 by Pierre Edmond Bossier and Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker.
One of Kotschy's Finds. Asperula orientalis, Oriental Woodruff, Shaffys Tuin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
On March 24, 1841 the Austrian-Polish naturalist and explorer Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy (1813-1866) collected this flower in the stony hills near Aleppo, Syria. That dried exemplar is today preserved in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University and you'll be able to find a photo of it via Tropicos.org. Kotschy traveled widely in North Africa (including what is today Sudan), Turkey, the Near- and Mideast always collecting plant specimens, well into the hundreds of thousands! Besides being a botanist and naturalist he also studied the cultures and histories of the place through which he traveled. He is considered the father of oriental studies in Austria. This plant was first scientifically described in 1843 by Pierre Edmond Bossier and Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker.