Biography

Wolfgang Frey is a botanist and professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Born in Rechberghausen, he studied botany, zoology and biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, gaining his PhD in 1969. He remained at Tübingen as a scientific assistant, being promoted to lecturer in 1977. He was then appointed Professor of Botany at the University of Giessen in 1978 and three years later joined Berlin's Freie Universität, again as Professor of Botany. Frey retired from this post in 2007.

Frey's research interests focus on systematic botany and geobotany, especially looking at the vegetation of Central Europe and South West Asia. He is interested in structure, adaptation, life strategies, clonal reproduction and habitat colonisation in plant communities; the systematics and evolution of liverworts, mosses and hornworts; and diversity, adaptation and phytogeography of the bryoflora of tropical and Southern Hemisphere temperate rainforests. He is a co-editor of the journal Hedwigia.

Frey has made collections in many parts of the world. Between 1960 and 1980 he concentrated his efforts on Afghanistan and Iran, especially the central Hindu Kush, the Alborz Mountains, north-east Khorasan, Zagros, Lake Maharlu and the coastal regions of the Persian-Arabian Gulf and Queshm. He visited Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and neighbouring countries many times from 1977-1994. He made three expeditions to New Zealand in the 1990s and has visited Madeira on four occasions since 2004.

Among Frey's major published works are Geobotanik (with Rainer Lösch, 2010), The Liverworts, mosses and Ferns of Europe (co-authored by J.-P. Frahm, E. Fischer and W. Lobin, 2006) and Moosflora (with J.-P. Frahm, 2004). Frey edited the section on bryophytes and seedless vascular plants in the 13th edition of A. Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilie (2009) and had a festschrift dedicated to him in 2007 ("Festschrift to Wolfgang Frey - a scientist's life between deserts and rainforests", Nova Hedwigia 131). The species Orthotrichum freyanum Goffinet, W.R. Buck & M.A. Wall is named in his honour.

Sources:
M. Alam, 2009, "Plant Collectors in Afghanistan", Bulletin de la Société vaudoise des Sciences naturelles, 91(3): 330
S.-W. Breckle, W. Frey and I.C. Hedge, 1969, "Botanical Literature of Afghanistan", Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 29: 357-371
W. Frey and H. Kürschner, 2009, "New records of bryophytes from Afghanistan - with a note on the bryological exploration of the country", Nova Hedwigia, 88(3-4): 503-511 Material also held in SMNS.