Quick Facts
| Intro | German botanist |
| A.K.A. | Wirtg. |
| Was | Scientist Botanist |
| From | Germany |
| Field | Science |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 4 December 1806, Neuwied, Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany |
| Death | 7 September 1870, Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (aged 63 years) |
Biography
Philipp Wilhelm Wirtgen (4 December 1806 – 7 September 1870) was a German botanist and teacher born in Neuwied, Germany. He was the father of botanist Ferdinand Paul Wirtgen (1848–1924).
He was a school teacher in Remagen, Winningen and beginning in 1831, at Koblenz, where from 1835 to 1870, he served as an instructor at the Evangelischen Höheren Stadtschule. With botanist Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck (1787-1837), he was founder of the Botanischer Verein am Mittel- und Niederrhein (Botanical Association of the Middle and Lower Rhine).
Wirtgen specialized in the study of Rhineland flora, and his work largely dealt with phytogeography, taxonomy and floristics within the field of botany. Among his numerous publications was an 1857 book involving flora native to Rhine Province called "Flora der preußischen Rheinprovinz und der zunächst angränzenden Gegenden", and a treatise titled "Neuwied und seine Umgebung" (Neuwied and its Environment). Other noted works by Wirtgen include:
- Flora des Regierungsbezirks Coblenz, 1841 – Flora of the Koblenz district.
- Die cryptogamischen Gefässpflanzen der preussischen Rheinlande, 1847 – Cryptogamic vascular plants of the Prussian Rhineland.
- Beiträge zur rheinischen Flora, 1869 – Contribution to Rhenish flora.
The plant genus Wirtgenia (family Asteraceae) was named in his honor by Carl Heinrich 'Bipontinus' Schultz (1842).