Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister

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Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister

1824-1877

Self-taught German botanist who published two groundbreaking textbooks in his field. His research distinguished flowering from nonflowering plants and demonstrated how plant generations alternate between sexual and nonsexual generations. His first published handbook was on plant physiology. His other textbook became the first general work describing how plant tissues and organs are formed and differentiated. He is considered a pioneer of comparative plant morphology.