Carl Ludwig Sprenger

Carl Ludwig Sprenger was a German botanist, born on 30 November 1846 at Güstrow, Mecklenburg and died 13 December 1917 on the island of Corfu.[1]

Sprenger lived in Naples from 1877 to 1917, and was a partner in the horticultural house of Dammann & Co. of San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples, Italy. David Fairchild praised Sprenger, "a brilliant botanist who had established a nursery...he was one of those real plantsmen who both know the names of plants and how to grow them.... Sprenger was known to roam mountain sides and meadows. He enthusiastically collected seeds for botanical gardens and freely gave of his knowledge to others... The eruption of Vesuvius [April 4, 1906] buried his plants under volcanic ash, destroying hundreds of his best specimens."[2]

In 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm (William II) purchased Achilleion, a garden with a palace on Corfu (Kerkyra). Sprenger became supervisor of the Kaiser's garden.[2]

Sprenger's life had no sound; Fairchild wrote that he was "very deaf". Perhaps he loved plants so much because they spoke in colors, shapes, and scents.[2] In the end, he did not even have flowers. The man who surrounded himself with plants died December 13, 1917, a hostage of war. Being German and living on a Greek island in the middle of the First World War was high-risk, but at 70 years of age he was not prepared to leave behind his beloved plants and move to another country.

Contents

Cultivars created

Cannas

Sprenger concluded that by constantly interbreeding the large flowered Crozy canna varieties nothing novel or more remarkable could be secured, and he therefore experimented with some new blood, employing for this purpose the Canna flaccida, a species of the southern USA, of medium height and large flowers, with one specially developed petal. The result was what became known as the 'Orchid' Cannas or the 'Italian' Cannas, when in 1893 he introduced Canna 'Italia' and Canna 'Austria'.[3] At the same time, Luther Burbank in the USA was pursuing a similar approach, the results of which were introduced some two years later than Sprengers' introductions.[4]

The list of Italian Group introductions is as follows:[5]

  1. Canna 'Africa'
  2. Canna 'Alemania'
  3. Canna 'America'
  4. Canna 'Aphrodite'
  5. Canna 'Asia'
  6. Canna 'Atlanta'
  7. Canna 'Australia'
  8. Canna 'Austria'
  9. Canna 'Bavaria'
  10. Canna 'Borussia'
  11. Canna 'Brittania'
  12. Canna 'Burgundia'
  13. Canna 'Campania'
  14. Canna 'Ch. Naudin'
  15. Canna 'Edouard André'
  16. Canna 'Emilia'
  17. Canna 'Grand Sasso d'Italia'
  18. Canna 'H. Wendland'
  19. Canna 'Heinrich Seidel'
  20. Canna 'Hellas'
  21. Canna 'Iberia'
  22. Canna 'Italia'
  23. Canna 'Kronos'
  24. Canna 'La France'
  25. Canna 'Oceanus'
  26. Canna 'Pandora'
  27. Canna 'Partenope'
  28. Canna 'Penelope'
  29. Canna 'Perseus'
  30. Canna 'Phoebe'
  31. Canna 'Pluto'
  32. Canna 'Prof. Treub'
  33. Canna 'Rhea'
  34. Canna 'Roi Humbert'
  35. Canna 'Roi Leopold'
  36. Canna 'Roma'
  37. Canna 'Romagna'
  38. Canna 'Sicilia'
  39. Canna 'Suevia'
  40. Canna 'Trinacria'
  41. Canna 'Umbria'
  42. Canna 'Wilhelm Beck'

What is not so well known, is that Sprenger also released many new Crozy Group cultivars. Some of those are:[5]

  1. Canna 'Aetna'
  2. Canna 'Ajax'
  3. Canna 'Alkmene'
  4. Canna 'Arethusa'
  5. Canna 'Capri'
  6. Canna 'Königin von Italien'
  7. Canna 'Kronprinz von Italien'
  8. Canna 'Madame Oscar Meuricoffre'
  9. Canna 'Nero'
  10. Canna 'Paestum'
  11. Canna 'Prinzessin Laetitia'
  12. Canna 'Professor Rossi'
  13. Canna 'Solfatara'
  14. Canna 'Stromboli'
  15. Canna 'Sultana'

Yuccas

Sprenger created and named 122 beautiful Yucca hybrids in the years from 1897 to 1907:[6]

Yucca treculeana canaliculata × Yucca recurvifolia (= Yucca treculeana × Yucca recurvifolia)
Yucca treculeana canaliculata × gloriosa(= Yucca treculeana × Yucca gloriosa)
Yucca gloriosa × filamentosa
Yucca gloriosa robusta × flaccida
Yucca gloriosa longifolia x flaccida
Yucca gloriosa plicata x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca flexilis × filamentosa
Yucca flexilis × flaccida glaucescens
Yucca filamentosa x flexilis
Yucca flaccida x flexilis
Yucca rupicola x gloriosa
Yucca rupicola x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca filamentosa x Yucca rupicola
Yucca flaccida x Yucca rupicola
Yucca aloifolia x filamentosa
Yucca aloifolia x flaccida
Yucca aloifolia x Yucca rupicola
Yucca aloifolia x Yucca gloriosa
Yucca aloifolia gigantea x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca aloifolia purpurea x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca aloifolia x flexilis
Yucca aloifolia marginata x flexilis
Yucca filamentosa x Yucca aloifolia
Yucca flaccida x Yucca aloifolia
Yucca flexilis x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca filamentosa x Yucca gloriosa
Yucca filamentosa media x Yucca gloriosa
Yucca filamentosa x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca filamentosa media x Yucca recurvifolia
Yucca flaccida × Yucca gloriosa longifolia
Yucca flaccida glaucescens × Yucca gloriosa
Yucca flaccida glaucescens × Yucca recurvifolia

Others

The standard author abbreviation Sprenger is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ John Hendley Barnhart (1965). Biographical Notes upon Botanists. G.K. Hall & Co. (Boston).
  2. ^ a b c David Fairchild, - The World was My Garden
  3. ^ Garden and Forest. / Volume 8, Issue 409. [December 25, 1895, 511-520]
  4. ^ Garden and forest. / Volume 9, Issue 432. [June 3, 1896, 221-230]
  5. ^ a b Árpád Mühle, 1909. Das Geschlecht der Canna
  6. ^ Benny's Kaktus
  7. ^ What's in a name?
  8. ^ The Royal Horticultural Society
  9. ^ Photo of M. sprengeri flowers
  10. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do. 

Recommended reading

External links