19th-century Belgian botanists

Gérard_Daniel_Westendorp

Gérard Daniel Westendorp (8 March 1813, The Hague – 31 January 1869, Dendermonde) was a Dutch born, Belgian military physician and botanist.
He studied medicine at the Ecole de Médecine de Bruxelles, later working as a student-physician in Antwerp. Around 1834, he became a naturalized citizen of Belgium, subsequently serving as an assistant army and navy physician, later spending his career as a "regular doctor" in the Belgian army.As a botanist, he specialized in cryptogamic flora, being the co-publisher (with A.C.F. Wallays) of a cryptogamic exsiccatae series of Belgium. He also made significant contributions towards the "Prodromus Florae Batavae" project (1850-1866). In the field of zoology, he published a treatise on Bryozoa and sponges of Belgium.Westendorp's botanical specimens are preserved in the Jardin Botanique National de Belgique.

Émile_Auguste_Joseph_De_Wildeman

Émile Auguste Joseph De Wildeman (19 October 1866, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode – 1947) was a Belgian botanist and phycologist. He is known for his investigations of Congolese flora.
From 1883 to 1887, he studied pharmacy at the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1891, he began work as a preparateur at the Botanical Garden of Brussels, an institution where he later served as director. In 1892, he received his doctorate in sciences (academic advisor, Leo Errera) and in 1926 attained the title of professor.

Charles_François_Antoine_Morren

Charles François Antoine Morren (3 March 1807 in Ghent – 17 December 1858 in Liège), was a Belgian botanist and horticulturist, and Director of the Jardin botanique de l’Université de Liège.Morren taught physics at Ghent University between 1831 and 1835. At the same time he studied medicine and graduated in 1835. He became Professor extraordinarius of botany at the University of Liège from 1835 to 1837, and full professor from 1837 to 1854.
Pollination of Vanilla orchids is required to make the plants produce the pods from which vanilla extract is obtained. In 1837, Morren was among the first to publish a method for artificial pollination of Vanilla, but his method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. Noted French botanist and plant collector Jean Michel Claude Richard falsely claimed to have discovered the technique three or four years earlier, but by the end of the 20th century, Albius was considered the true discoverer.
He was the father of Charles Jacques Édouard Morren. Morren and his son produced the journal La Belgique Horticole (35 volumes, 1851–1885).
Morren also coined the term phenology, which refers to the scientific discipline that studies the seasonal cycles of animals and plants. Morren first used the term phenology in 1849 during a public lecture at the Academy of Brussels. The first use of the term phenology in a scientific paper dates back to 1853 when Morren published “Souvenirs phénologiques de l’hiver 1852-1853” (“Phenological memories of the winter 1852-1853”). This paper describes an exceptionally warm winter when plants exhibited unusually phenological patterns.

This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation C.Morren when citing a botanical name.

Jean_Kickx

Jean Kickx (17 January 1803, Brussels – 1864) was a Belgian botanist. His father, also known as Jean Kickx (1775–1831) was a botanist and mineralogist; his son Jean Jacques Kickx (1842–1887) was a professor of botany at the University of Ghent.
In 1830 he obtained his PhD at Leuven, later serving as a professor of botany in Brussels (1831–1835) and at the University of Ghent (1835–1864). He was a co-founder of the Société royale de botanique de Belgique.The mycological genus Kickxella (order Kickxellales) was named in his honor by Eugène Coumans.

François_Crépin

François Crépin (30 October 1830 – 30 April 1903) was an important botanist of the 19th century and director of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium.
Crépin was born in Rochefort, Belgium. The genus Crepinella (Araliaceae) is named after him. As a taxonomist he circumscribed numerous plants within the genus Rosa. He died in Brussels.
His Belgian herbarium and his herbier des roses are kept in the collections of the Botanic Garden Meise.

Alfred_Cogniaux

Célestin Alfred Cogniaux (7 April 1841 – 15 April 1916) was a Belgian botanist. Amongst other plants, the genus Neocogniauxia of orchids is named after him.
In 1916 his enormous private herbarium was acquired by the National Botanic Garden of Belgium.