Biography

German naturalist and travel writer who usually referred to himself as Ferdinand Krauss. He undertook a major expedition in South Africa (1838-1840). BM purchased 513 plants from Natal (1840) and additional material with the Shuttleworth herbarium (1877). As Krauss collected many cryptogams and sold duplicates, it is possible that further material arrived with acquisitions of other herbaria or specimens transferred from K under the Morton Agreement after 1961. A number of South African plants are named in his honour including Cycnium kraussianum Benth., the commonly cultivated pteridophyte Selaginella kraussiana (Kunze) A. Braun, and the genus Kraussia Harv. of the Rubiaceae, published in 1842. The genus Kraussia Sch. Bip., in the Asteraceae, published in 1844, was rejected as a later homonym.