Wilhelm Olbers Focke

Wilhelm Olbers Focke (1834 to 1922) was a physician of Bremen, born and died in that city, who held leading posts in the public health service and became a noted plant scientist. He came from a family of doctors and naturalists, studied medicine at Bonn, took his doctorate at Würzburg in 1857 and passed his state examination in Berlin in 1858, then lived in Bremen as a doctor, where he held important leading positions in public health until he retired in 1904. His botanical studies covered ecology, classification and plant geography, with his main contribution on brambles and related roses and on plant hybrids. His 1881 compilation Die Pflanzenmischlinge gathered the scattered literature on natural and artificial crosses, cited the experiments of Gregor Mendel several times without grasping their full meaning, and coined the word xenia. He helped found the Bremen natural science society in 1868 and the botanical garden in 1904.