Organisation(s)
WU (main), A, B, BM, C, CERN, CGE, E, FI, GB, GH, GJO, GOET, GZU, H, IBF, JE, K, KIEL, L, LE, LG, MANCH, MW, NCY, NMW, OXF, P, PR, S, W, WB, WRSL
Associate(s)
Fritsch, C. (fl. 1898) (co-collector)
Kerner, Josef (1829-1906) (co-collector)
Kerner von Marilaun, A.J. (synonym)
Wettstein, Richard (1863-1931) (assistant, co-collector, student)
Biography
Austrian botanist, physician and director of the botanic garden in Vienna. Anton Joseph Kerner was interested in alpine plants. In his home town of Mautern an der Donau he explored the local countryside and its plant life and later, while studying medicine in Vienna (1848-1853), he developed a reputation for his botanical knowledge. In 1854 he was named doctor of medicine and practiced for a short while as a physician in Vienna, before moving to Budapest where he worked as a high school teacher until 1858. Kerner was named professor at the Budapest Polytechnic that year and he undertook this role for a further two years.
In 1860 Kerner was named chair of botany at the University of Innsbruck, as well as director of their botanic garden and museum. Throughout his years in Hungary and Vienna he had been studying the Kingdom's flora and in 1863 was able to publish his findings in a work on the natural history of plants of the Danube countries: Das Pflanzenleben der Donaulaender. Publishing several other works during this period, he was knighted in 1877 and at this time his name became Kerner von Marilaun. He soon returned to Vienna and was named professor of natural history and director of the museum and botanic garden in 1878. At this time he was also concerned with the subject of flower anatomy and the associated relationship with insects, publishing an account entitled "Flowers and their Unbidden Guests" in 1878.
Continuing to explore the local vegetation Kerner von Marilaun had soon amassed a great collection of Austro-Hungarian plants with which he produced a famous exsiccatae series alongside K. Fritsch Jr. and R. von Wettstein. Named Flora exsiccata austro-hungarica a museo botanico universitatis edita it was published between 1881 and 1903 and the 80,000 or so specimens are now housed at the University of Vienna (WU). His most famous work, however, was produced in 1890-1891 and named Pflanzenleben. An overview of plant natural history it was an ambitious project and contained many accounts of his own experiences and observations while in the field. In 1895 the English translation (The Natural History of Plants) was published.
As a taxonomist Kerner von Marilaun focused upon the Tubocytisus Fourr., publishing his treatment of this genus in 1868. Later his interest turned to the Pulmonaria L. and he produced the associated monograph in 1878. Tending towards a narrower species concept he was quite Jordanian in his work and often split his species excessively. Kerner von Marilaun also experimented with alpine plant adaptation and liked to cultivate specimens at different altitudes in order to observe any change which might occur in subsequent generations. An excellent lecturer he had an artistic style to his public speaking and to his writing. He has been referred to as the 'poet-botanist' and was also a talented draughtsman, producing most of the illustrations in his publications.
Sources:
O. Stapf, 1898, "A. Kerner von Marilaun", Nature, 58: 251-252
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2)
Kerner von Marilaun, Anton Joseph (Austria 1831-1898), Chrono-biographical Sketches, Western Kentucky University (WKU):
http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/KERN1831.htm, accessed 10 November 2010.
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 321; Chaudhri, M.N., Vegter, H.I. & de Bary, H.A., Index Herb. Coll. I-L (1972): 354; Harrison, S.G., Ind. Coll. Welsh Nat. Herb. (1985): 61; Jackson, B.D., Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew (1901): 37; Murray, G.R.M., Hist. Coll. Nat. Hist. Dep. Brit. Mus. (1904): 159;
