Franz Stephani

Franz Stephani (1842–1927) was a German bryologist specializing in liverworts. The standard botanical author abbreviation Steph. is applied to species he described.

Stephani was born in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg, in 1842. He attended and graduated from the Königliches Gymnasium, whereupon he began training to be a businessman in the wool-spinning industry. He worked both in a toy shop, and in a publishing house. In 1869, he married Marie Kell, daughter of the novelist Julius Kell and had two children. By the age of 34, Stephani began publishing papers on the subject of liverworts. He never attended university, and it is not known how his interest in bryology was sparked.

Stephani is most remembered for his "Species Hepaticarum", a six-volume attempt to catalog all of the world's species of liverworts and hornworts. This is the only work that has ever attempted such a broad treatment of those groups,cite journal | last=Gradstein | first=S. R. | year=2006 | title=Stephani's "Species Hepaticarum" revisited | journal=Willdenowia | volume=36 | issue=Special Issue | pages=557-563 | url=http://www.bgbm.org/willdenowia/w-pdf/wi36-1Gradstein.pdf | format=pdf ] and saw the first publication of many new names. Almost 10,000 species are included, with more than 4,000 new ones described by Stephani. Unfortunately, the work is "often much condemned" for being of very poor quality, and "holds the reputation of being one of the most notorious publications in bryology."

Stephani created many new names for species that already had published names, and later researchers were left to sort out the nomenclature problems his work created.cite book | last=Schofield | first=W. B. | year=1985 | title= Introduction to Bryology | pages=p 261-262 | location=New York | publisher= Macmillan | isbn = 0-02-949660-8 ] It is estimated perhaps only 25 to 35% of his species will prove to be valid upon investigation. A more precise figure cannot be made because "taxonomists are still busy clearing the mess."

The poor quality of Stephani's work in his later years may have been the result of a progressive brain disease that affected work on the final three volumes,cite book | last = Schuster | first=Rudolf M. | year=1966 | title=The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America | volume=1 | pages=p133–134, 321, 361 | location = New York | publisher = Columbia University Press ] and the remnants of his life's work were published posthumously by Bonner in 1953.

elected publications

* Stephani, F. (1898–1924). "Species Hepaticarum", vols. I–VI. Geneva.

References