Wilhelmi, Johann Friederich Carl (1829 - 1884)

Summary

Carl Wilhelmi was a botanist and plant collector who was in South Australia between 1849 and 1855, during which time he made extensive botanical explorations along the Murray River, Kangaroo Island and the Eyre Peninsula. After moving to Victoria in 1855 he became Acting Government Botanist at the Botanical Museum of Melbourne while the incumbent, Ferdinand Mueller, was participating in the North Australian Exploring Expedition. On Mueller's return Wilhelmi remained at the Museum as Mueller's assistant. Wilhelmi's principal collecting areas in Victoria were the Grampians (of which he was the first to publish a detailed account), the Dandenong Ranges, the Pyrenees and Corner Inlet. In 1863 he made a brief visit to New South Wales. Besides his botanical work he studied aboriginal use of native plants. He returned to Germany in 1869 where set up business as seedsman. Wilhelmi's collections, mainly from South Australia and Victoria, are in the National Herbarium of Victoria.

Details

Chronology

1849

Life event - Migrated to South Australia

1853

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus cladocalyx F.Muell. (1853). Wilhelmi collected the type.

1855

Life event - Moved to Victoria

1856 - 1857

Career position - Acting Government Botanist, Botanical Museum of Melbourne

1857 - 1868

Career position - Assistant Botanist, Botanical Museum of Melbourne

1869

Life event - Returned to Germany

Related entries

Published resources

Book Sections

• Maroske, Sara, 'Germans at the Melbourne Botanic Garden and Herbarium, 1853-96' in Baron von Mueller's German Melbourne, Ellen I. Mitchell, ed. (Bundoora, Victoria: La Trobe University, 2000), pp. 24-34. Details

Conference Papers

• Kraehenbuehl, Darrell N., 'Carl Wilhelmi, the Seedsman from Dresden: His Botanical Endeavour in South Australia and Victoria', in History of Systematic Botany in Australasia: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the University of Melbourne, 25-27 May 1988 edited by Short, P.S. (Melbourne: Australian Systematic Botany Society, 1990), pp. 115-120.. Details

Journal Articles

• Wilhelmi, C., 'Notes on some edible and useful Australian plants', Hooker’s journal of botany and Kew garden miscellany, 9 (1857), 265-9. Details
• Wilhelmi, Carl, 'My Journeys in South Australia: Lecture by Carl Wilhelmi, 14 September 1857 (translated and introduced by Thomas A. Darragh)', Journal of Friends of Lutheran Archives, 13 (2003), 5-24. Details
• Wilhelmi, J. F. C., 'Manners and customs of the Australian natives, in particular of the Port Lincoln district', Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, 5 (1860), 164-203. Details
• Wilhelmi, J. F. C., 'Eine Excursion in die Grampians, Victoriagebirge und Pyrenäen von Australien', Sitzungs-Berichte der Naturwissenschaften Gesellschaft Isis (Dresden), 1870 (1870), 160-3. Details
• Wilhelmi, J. F. C., 'Die Pflanzen des australischen Continentes, welche vorzugsweise ihrer medicinischen Eigenschaften wegen Verwendung finded', Sitzungs-Berichte der Naturwissenschaften Gesellschaft Isis (Dresden), 1873 (1873), 195-7. Details
• Wilhelmi, J. F. C., 'Verzeichniss der am Murray-Flusse gesammelten Pflanzen', Sitzungs-Berichte der Naturwissenschaften Gesellschaft Isis (Dresden), 1873 (1873), 40-45. Details

Resources

• 'Wilhelmi, Johann Friederich Carl (1829-18841231)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1540499. Details

See also

• Fagg, Murray, 'Wilhelmi, Johann Friederich Carl (1829 - 1884)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/wilhelmi-carl.html. Details
• McMullen, Gabrielle, 'Noted colonial German scientists and their contexts', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 127 (1) (2015), 9-16, https://doi.org/10.1071/RS15001. Details