Georg Ernst Ludwig Hampe

Picture of Ernst Hampe on the front cover of Flora Hercynica

Georg Ernst Ludwig Hampe (July 5, 1795 – November 23, 1880) was a German pharmacist, botanist and bryologist who was a native of Fürstenberg.

In 1810 he became an apprentice pharmacist to his uncle in Brakel, and over the next fifteen years worked in a number of pharmacies at several locations, including in Halle an der Saale (where he became acquainted with botanist Kurt Sprengel 1766-1833), at the university pharmacy in Göttingen, in the town of Allendorf, and later in the city of Braunschweig. In 1825 he became head of a local pharmacy in Blankenburg am Harz, where he remained its director until 1864.

During his time at Blankenburg, Hampe collected and studied flora native to the Harz Mountains. He was particularly interested in mosses, and through his association with bryologist Karl Müller (1818-1899), he became exposed to non-European species from the Americas, Madagascar, New Zealand, Australia, et al. In his collaborative research with Müller, he described numerous new bryological species.

Later in life, Hampe received an honorary professorship from the University of Göttingen. In 1876 he sold his pharmacy in Blankenburg, and moved to Helmstedt, where he went to live with his son. After Hampe's death, his large herbarium was acquired by the British Museum of Natural History.

The plant genus Hampea from the family Malvaceae was named in his honor by Dietrich von Schlechtendal (1794-1866).^[1]

Selected publications

• Prodromus flora Hercynicae (Halle 1836, Nordhausen 1842)
• Vegetabilia cellularia in Germania septentrionale praesertim in Hercynia et in agro Gottingensi (1834 and 1836), with Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling (1798–1875).
• Linnaea (1844)
• Icones muscorum novorum vel minus cognitorum (Bonn 1844)
• Flora Hercynica oder Aufzählung der im Harzgebiete wildwachsenden Gefässpflanzen (1873)
• Flora Hercynica (Halle 1875)

References

1. BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE IMPERIALE DES NATURALISTS DE MOSCOU
2. "Author Query for 'Hampe'". International Plant Names Index.

• Parts of this article are based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
• Episodes in Australian Bryology @ Australian National Botanical Gardens.

External links

• IPNI List of plants described and co-described by Hampe.