August W. Eichler

August Wilhelm Eichler, also known under his latinized name, Augustus Guilielmus Eichler (April 22, 1839, in Neukirchen, Hesse – March 2, 1887, in Berlin) was a German botanist that modified former systems to reflect a better relationship between plants. The plant kingdom was divided into non-floral plants (Cryptogamae) and floral plants (Phanerogamae) by him.

Eichler System is the first one in which the concept of Evolution was accepted and therefore it was also the first one to be considered phylogenetic ^[1]. Moreover Eichler was the first taxonomist to separate Phanerogamae in Angiosperms and Gymnosperms and the former in Monocotyledonae and Dicotyledonae ^[2].

Eichler system was the foundation for Adolf Engler's System and it had large acceptance world-wide (mainly in Europe).

He studied in University of Marburg, Germany and was in 1871, professor of Botany in Technische Hochschule (Technical University), Graz. In 1872 he received an appointment at the University of Kiel, he remained until 1878, when he became director of the herbarium at the University of Berlin.

Eichler made important contributions to the study of the comparative structure of flowers (mainly on floral symmetry in his work Blütendiagramme).

The standard author abbreviation Eichler is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[1]

See also:

[edit] Works

Blütendiagramme, Volume I:1875 and Volume II:1878 (Floral diagrams).
Flora Brasiliensis (Flora of Brazil) editor after death of Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius in 1868 until 1887, succeeded by Ignatz Urban
Syllabus der Vorlesungen über Phanerogamenkunde (1883) 3rd Edition, Berlin (Register of the lectures about Phanerogamae)

^ Aaron Goldberg (1986). "Classification, Evolution and Phylogeny of the Families of Dicotyledons". Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 58: 1–314.
^ G. H. M. Lawrence (1951). Taxonomy of vascular plants.