Classifying Creation: How August Wilhelm Eichler Revolutionized Botany

April 22, 1839

On this day in horticultural history, the esteemed botanist August Wilhelm Eichler drew his first breath, destined to revolutionize how we classify the very plants we nurture in our gardens.

Our dear Wilhelm—a German botanist of considerable intellect—developed one of the first natural systems of plant classification actually worth the paper it was printed upon. Most remarkably, his classification system was the first to embrace Darwin's then-controversial theory of evolution, proving Wilhelm possessed both scientific acumen and a refreshing dose of daring.

In a stroke of elegant simplicity that would make any orderly gardener's heart flutter, Wilhelm divided the plant kingdom into non-floral plants and floral plants. One imagines his satisfaction at bringing such clarity to botanical chaos.

For the majority of his distinguished career, Wilhelm toiled as the private assistant to naturalist Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martinus—a man whose ambition matched his impossibly lengthy name.

Martinus had embarked on a collecting frenzy in Brazil, returning with over 20,000 specimens—a number that would make even the most zealous plant hunter blush with envy! The final three decades of Martinus's life were devoted to documenting these findings in a volume titled Flora Brasiliensis, with Wilhelm's considerable editorial assistance. For those uninitiated in botanical literature, a Flora is simply a book describing all plants from a particular geographic region—an essential reference for any serious gardener wishing to expand their horticultural horizons.

When Martinus departed this mortal coil in 1868, Wilhelm shouldered the immense burden of continuing Flora Brasiliensis entirely alone. It was, without question, a labor of profound devotion. Following Wilhelm's own demise, the botanist Ignatius Urban persevered with the monumental project until its completion—a testament to botanical brotherhood spanning generations.

Today, the city of Dresden honors this botanical luminary with Wilhelm Eichler Strasse—a street bearing his name, ensuring passersby unwittingly pay homage to this champion of classification.

It was the profound August Wilhelm Eichler who uttered these eerily prophetic words:

"The felling of the first tree is the beginning of human civilization. The felling of the last is his end."

While delving into Wilhelm's fascinating life, I chanced upon the Berlin Botanic Garden's digital archives—a treasure trove for the historically-minded gardener!

Wilhelm served as director of this prestigious garden from 1879 to 1887. In one particularly tantalizing annual report, the garden shared this delicious morsel regarding Wilhelm's Berlin years:

"This was an eventful time, with world's fairs, the invention of electricity, and rapid industrialization."

"There is no question that the director of a botanic garden would have been preoccupied by such innovations, but a recent find has provided us with absolute proof that this was so."

"In the attic of a residential building that almost certainly once belonged to the Eichler family, a box of handwritten papers, galley proofs, herbarium material and correspondence was found..."

"This legacy is currently being catalogued by Peter Hirsch."

One cannot help but wonder what secrets these attic treasures might reveal about our methodical Wilhelm! Perhaps evidence of a passionate affair with an exotic Brazilian bromeliad? Or maybe detailed sketches for an elaborate classification system that proved too revolutionary even for its visionary creator? Whatever secrets these papers hold, how marvelous that they survived nearly two centuries of attics and archives to illuminate the life of the man who brought evolutionary order to our beloved botanical world.