Józef Warszewicz


Józef Warszewicz Ritter von Rawicz was a Polish botanist, plant and animal collector, and biologist.

Life

Born into an impoverished Polish family of lower nobility, he grew up in Vilnius, Lithuania, and became a botanist at the botanical garden of the Vilnius University. While at the university, he joined the November Uprising which was quickly and brutally suppressed, whereupon, with the remnants of the Polish army, he fled to Germany. In the years 1840-1844 he worked as assistant gardener in the Botanical Garden at Berlin.
In 1844, upon recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt, he was sent by Messrs. Van Houtte, a horticulturalist of Ghent, to join a Belgian colony in Guatemala, where he soon became an independent collector and wholesale supplier of plants to European horticulturalists and botanical gardens.
Warszewicz was especially interested in orchids, of which he imported enormous quantities, many of which were described by H.G. Reichenbach. He traveled and collected extensively throughout Central America, discovering a wealth of new plant species in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama, where he climbed the 16,000-foot Chiriqui Volcano.
Suffering from the consequences of yellow fever, Warszewicz returned to Germany in 1850. He spent some time working with Reichenbach in Berlin, but at the begin of 1851 he left for South America. At the end of that year he was robbed of all his possessions in Guayaquil. Undaunted, he traveled throughout Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, collecting and discovering many new plant species. He also collected animals and cultural artifacts.
A recurrence of yellow fever in 1853 compelled Warszewicz to return to Cracow where he became supervisor of the Botanical Gardens. He retained this position it until his death.
His exsicates were bequeathed to the Berlin Botanic Garden.

Selected taxa

Warscewiczella Rchb.f., Warszewiczia and Warscaea Szlach. were named after him as well as many species, e.g.