Hall of Fame: Adelbert von Chamisso

 

Biographical info

Name: Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamisso de Boncourt

Born: 30 January 1781, in Château de Boncourt, Champagne, France; Died: 21 August 1838, in Berlin, Prussia.

Major Accomplishments:
German naturalist and poet, chiefly remembered for his 1814 story "Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" (The Strange Story of Peter Schlemihl, a story about a man who sold his shadow to the devil). Chamisso served in the court of William II of Prussia, and was eventually appointed as keeper of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Schumann put Chamisso's poetic Frauenliebe und Leben (1830) to music. His contributions to zoology came as a result of his position as naturalist aboard the Russian expedition to California and Alaska aboard the Rurick (1815-1818, commanded by Lieut. Otto von Kotzebue). He described such well known jellyfish taxa as Aurelia labiata (Scyphozoa) and Liriope tetraphylla (Hydrozoa), along with the California Poppy Eschscholzia californica, named for J.F. Eschscholtz, the expedition's surgeon and entomologist. Among his other achievements are the discovery of "alternation of generations" in pelagic tunicates, and an island and a wilderness area named after him in northwestern Alaska. He was also a playwrite, a linguist, and served in the army. His grave in Germany is marked with a statue of him.

Honorific taxa (zoological):

Eurhamphaea chamissonis (Eschscholtz, 1829) [Ctenophora]

Honorific taxa (botanical):
Camissonia Link 1818

Montia chamissoi (Ledeb. ex Spreng.) Greene 1825 (familiarly known as toad-lily)
Stachys chamissonis (hedge-nettle, coastal California)
Ambrosia chamissonis (silver burweed, West Coast beaches)
Arnica chamissonis (leafy arnica, in western North America)