Julius von Flotow

Who was Julius von Flotow?

Julius von Flotow; full name- Julius Christian Gottlieb Ulrich Gustav Georg Adam Ernst Friedrich von Flotow was a German military officer and lichenologist born in the village of Pitzerwitz in the region of Neumark.

In 1813, he suffered a serious war-related injury, from which he never fully recovered. During a military campaign in France, he took the opportunity to study lichens native to the Ardennes Mountains. In 1832 he took an early retirement from the military and worked as a private scholar in Hirschberg. Among his written works are the following:

Reisebericht über eine Excursion nach einem Theile des südöstlichen Riesengebirges

Über Haematococcus Pluvialis

Lichenes Florae Silesiae

In 1856 he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Breslau. The genus Flotovia from the botanical family Asteraceae is named in his honor.