Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold

Who was Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold?

Ferdinand Christian Gustav Arnold was a German lichenologist and taxonomist born in Ansbach, Bavaria. Even as a high school student he showed an active interest in botany: "Ich und August Gattinger ... durchstreiften von November 1846 bis zum Spätherbst 1847, Pflanzen sammelnd, die Landschaft von München nach allen Richtungen.".

He studied jurisprudence in Munich and Heidelberg and during his career practiced law in Eichstätt and Munich. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Munich in 1878. Additionally he was a student of botanists Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius and Otto Sendtner, and his spare time was devoted to floristics and classification of plants and fungi.

His initial studies dealt with vascular plants, but his primary focus later shifted to lichens and bryophytes. Well known for his studies of herbarium specimens, his personal herbarium contained approximately 150,000 specimens, largely consisting of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. Today this collection is kept at the Botanische Staatssammlung in Munich.