Richard Wettstein (30 June 1863 in Vienna – 10 August 1931 in Trins) was an Austrian botanist. His taxonomic system, the Wettstein system was one of the earliest based on phyletic principles.
Wettstein studied in Vienna, where he was a disciple of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (1831-1898) and married his daughter Adele.[1] He was a professor at the University of Prague from 1892, and at the University of Vienna from 1899. He newly laid out the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna.[2]
In 1901 he became president of the Vienna Zoological-Botanical Society (Zoologisch-Botanische Gesellschaft), and during the same year took part in a scientific expedition to Brazil. In 1919 he was appointed vice-president of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. During his later years (1929–30), he traveled with his son, Friedrich, to eastern and southern Africa.[3]
The mycological genus Wettsteinina is named in his honor and also Wettsteiniola, which is a genus of flowering plants from Brazil, belonging to the family Podostemaceae, also honor's Richard Wettstein.[4]
In 1905, he was co-president of the International Botanical Congress, held in Vienna.[5]
Selected publications
- Nolanaceae, Solanaceae, Scrophulariaceae in (Engler & Prantl 1895, pp. 1–107).
- Grundzüge der geographisch-morphologischen Methode der Pflanzensystematik, 1898 - Basics of geographical-morphological methods of plant systematics.
- Botanik Und Zoologie In Österreich in den Jahren 1850 Bis 1900, 1901 - Botany and zoology in Austria in the years 1850 to 1900.
- Der Neo-Lamarckismus und seine Beziehungen zum Darwinismus, 1903 - Neo-Lamarckism and its relationship to Darwinism.
- Wettstein, Richard (1924). Handbuch der Systematischen Botanik 2 vols (3rd ed.). Vienna: Deuticke. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
- 1st ed. 1901–1908 Vol. I 1901, Vol. II 1908 Deuticke, Vienna
- 2nd ed. 1910–1911
- 3rd ed. 1923–1924
- 4th ed. 1933–1935
