German-born physician and botanist who was the first Colonial Botanist in South Africa. Pappe graduated from Leipzig University with a degree in medicine and botany in 1827. Emigrating to South Africa in 1831 he set up as a medical practitioner in Cape Town, meanwhile looking into the medicinal properties of local plants. He soon became involved in botanical affairs in the country as a member of the Botanical Gardens Commission and a trustee of the new South African Museum. He was appointed the first Colonial Botanist in South Africa in 1858, with one of his objects to lay the foundations of a South African Herbarium. He began travelling and collecting plants straight away, sending a consignment of material for identification to William Harvey at Trinity College, Dublin, who was working on the monumental Flora Capensis. Pappe also became the first Professor of Botany at the South African College, though his teaching style won little admiration. As a botanist, however, he was highly reputed, winning praise from governments for his advice on economic plants. Sir William Hooker also commended Pappe for his work on mildew in the Cape vineyards. He was an authority on South African timber and published the first edition of his Silva Capensis in 1854, and with the Colonial Secretary, R. Rawson, he authored a "Synopsis of Cape Ferns". Pappe's collections, together with the herbarium of Karl Zeyher (which Pappe acquired), formed the basis of the original herbarium at the South African Museum. The collection was neglected, however, until it was placed in the Compton Herbarium at Kirstenbosch in 1956. The small tree genus Pappea Eckl. & Zeyh. was named in his honour.

Sources:
D. Geary-Cooke, 1975, "Carl Wilhelm Ludwig Pappe 1803-1862", Veld & Flora, 61(2): 12-14.