Johann Jakob Bernhardi (born 7 September 1774 in Erfurt; died 13. May 1850 in Erfurt) was a German doctor and botanist. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Bernh. when citing a botanical name.[1]
Johann J. Bernhardi studied Medicine and Botany at the University of Erfurt, and after graduation practiced medicine for a time in his native city.
He later served as Professor of Botany and director of the Botanical Garden until his death in 1850, being buried in the central avenue of this botanical garden.
Throughout his life thanks to acquisitions and interchanges with other botanists, he assembled a considerable herbarium of 60,000 plants with specimens from North America, South America, Asia, and Africa. After his death this herbarium did not remain in Germany but due to the efforts of George Engelmann, who, in 1857, shortly after the death of Bernhardi bought the complete herbarium for the amount of 600 dollars for Henry Shaw, founder of the Botanical Garden of Missouri in the U.S.A., forms the nucleus of the collection and the initial museum of this Botanical Garden (at the moment the "Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium" contains over 5 million specimens and the library over 120,000 volumes).
Johann J. Bernhardi studied and described several species of orchids, including Epipactis atrorubens.
He described a species of rose without thorns, Rosa × francofurtana, found in the garden of the house of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Weimar.