Biography

German apothecary and botanist from Münster (Westfalen). He set up his practice as an apothecary in Münster and subsequently in Transvaal, South Africa (1883-1896). He made a number of plant collecting expeditions from his base in Lydenburg, including a journey to the Delagoa Bay area. He returned to Germany (1896) and was employed as a research assistant, or sometimes a voluntary research associate, at the Botanical Museum in Berlin-Dahlem where he worked mainly on bryophytes and identification of his own material and that collected by A.G.H. Rudatis. Many species are named after him including Adenia wilmsii Harms, Hermannia wilmsii Engl., Ilysanthes wilmsii Engl. (= Lindernia wilmsii (Engl. & Diels) Philcox) and Streptocarpus wilmsii Engl.