Ascherson, Paul Friedrich August

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ASCHERSON, PAUL FRIEDRICH AUGUST

ASCHERSON, PAUL FRIEDRICH AUGUST (1834–1913), German botanist. Born and educated in Berlin, Ascherson abandoned a medical practice to become involved in botanical research. He founded the Brandenburg botanical society and wrote the classic Flora der Provinz Brandenburg (1859–64) which was later expanded and published as Flora des nordostdeutschen Flachlandes (1898–99). He traveled widely, making botanical trips in Europe and North Africa. He made a special study of the coastal flora from Alexandria to El Arish and collaborated in G. Schweinfurth's Illustration de la flore d'Egypte (1887; suppl. 1889). He was appointed to Berlin University in 1863 and became a full professor in 1908. He and his pupil, Paul Graebner, completed seven volumes of Synopsis der Mitteleuropaeischen Flora (1896).

bibliography:

A. Degen, in: Ungarische botanische Blaetter, 12, no. 1–5 (1913), 3–15; Festschrift… P.F.A. Ascherson (1904), includes bibliography; ndb.

[Mordecai L. Gabriel]