Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz

Eschscholzia California

 Today is the birthday of Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, who was born on this day in 1793.

When the German poet Adelbert van Chamiso ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, and he wrote about the California poppy, which he named Eschscholzia California after his friend Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholz.

In return, Eschscholz named a bunch of plants after Chamisso - a little quid pro quo.

In 1903, the botanist Sarah Plummer Lemmon put forth a successful piece of legislation that nominated the golden poppy (Eschscholzia californica) as the state flower of California. 


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Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz
Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz

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