| Carl Johann Maximowicz | |
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Carl Maximowicz |
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| Born | November 23, 1827 Tula, Russia |
| Died | February 16, 1891 (aged 63) St. Petersburg, Russia |
| Occupation | Herbarium director, Botanist, Explorer, and Plant Collector. |
Carl Johann Maximowicz (also Karl Ivanovich Maximowicz, Russian: Карл Иванович Максимович; 1827 in Tula, Russia – 1891 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian botanist. Maximowicz spent most of his life studying the flora of the countries he had visited in the Far East, and naming many new species. He worked at the Saint Petersburg Botanical Gardens from 1852 as curator of the herbarium collection, becoming Director in 1869.
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Born a Baltic-German, his name at birth was Karl Ivanovich Maksimovich, but he changed it to the German version of his name for his scientific work.[1] He graduated from the institution which is now University of Tartu, Estonia in (1850), he was a pupil of Alexander G. von Bunge.[2]
From 1853-1857 he traveled around the world. He travelled with another Baltic-German Leopold von Schrenck to the Amur region in eastern Asia. From 1859 to 1864 he also he visited China, Korea and Japan. He arrived in Japan in late 1860, initially basing his operations in Hakodate. He traveled extensively in southern Japan and for much of 1862 including the region of Yokohama and Mount Fuji, he ended that year in Nagasaki. He also explored much of Kyūshū.[1]
He was particularly involved with the flora of Japan, following the footsteps of notably Carl Peter Thunberg, and Philipp Franz von Siebold. His assistant in Japan was Sukawa Chonosuke, whose name was given by Maximowicz to the flower Trillium tschonoskii.
He also studied the flora of Tibet, concluding that is was chiefly composed of immigrants from Mongolia and the Himalaya.
Commissioned by the Russian Academy of Sciences, he purchased from von Siebold’s widow the set of eight volumes of the famous collection of Japanese botanical illustrations drawn by several Japanese artists.
Maximowicz described and named over 2300 plants which were previously unknown to science.[3]