Carl Ludwig Sprenger

Carl Ludwig Sprenger was a German botanist, born on 30 November 1846 at Güstrow, Mecklenburg and died 13 December 1917 on the island of Corfu.^[1]

Canna Italian Group 'Austria', Sprenger 1893

Sprenger lived in Naples from 1877 to 1917, and was a partner in the horticultural house of Dammann & Co. of San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples, Italy. David Fairchild praised Sprenger, "a brilliant botanist who had established a nursery...he was one of those real plantsmen who both know the names of plants and how to grow them.... Sprenger was known to roam mountain sides and meadows. He enthusiastically collected seeds for botanical gardens and freely gave of his knowledge to others... The eruption of Vesuvius [April 4, 1906] buried his plants under volcanic ash, destroying hundreds of his best specimens."^[2]

In 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm (William II) purchased Achilleion, a garden with a palace on Corfu (Kerkyra). Sprenger became supervisor of the Kaiser's garden.^[2]

Sprenger's life had no sound; Fairchild wrote that he was "very deaf". Perhaps he loved plants so much because they spoke in colors, shapes, and scents.^[2] In the end, he did not even have flowers. The man who surrounded himself with plants died December 13, 1917, a hostage of war. Being German and living on a Greek island in the middle of the First World War was high-risk, but at 70 years of age he was not prepared to leave behind his beloved plants and move to another country.

Cultivars created

Cannas

Canna (Italian Group) 'Italia', Sprenger 1893

Sprenger concluded that by constantly interbreeding the large flowered Crozy canna varieties nothing novel or more remarkable could be secured, and he therefore experimented with some new blood, employing for this purpose the Canna flaccida, a species of the southern USA, of medium height and large flowers, with one specially developed petal. The result was what became known as the 'Orchid' Cannas or the 'Italian' Cannas, when in 1893 he introduced Canna 'Italia' and Canna 'Austria'.^[3] At the same time, Luther Burbank in the USA was pursuing a similar approach, the results of which were introduced some two years later than Sprengers' introductions.^[4]

The list of Italian Group introductions is as follows:^[5]

1. Canna 'Africa'
2. Canna 'Alemania'
3. Canna 'America'
4. Canna 'Aphrodite'
5. Canna 'Asia'
6. Canna 'Atlanta'
7. Canna 'Australia'
8. Canna 'Austria'
9. Canna 'Bavaria'
10. Canna 'Borussia'
11. Canna 'Brittania'
12. Canna 'Burgundia'
13. Canna 'Campania'
14. Canna 'Ch. Naudin'
15. Canna 'Edouard André'
16. Canna 'Emilia'
17. Canna 'Grand Sasso d'Italia'
18. Canna 'H. Wendland'
19. Canna 'Heinrich Seidel'
20. Canna 'Hellas'
21. Canna 'Iberia'
22. Canna 'Italia'
23. Canna 'Kronos'
24. Canna 'La France'
25. Canna 'Oceanus'
26. Canna 'Pandora'
27. Canna 'Partenope'
28. Canna 'Penelope'
29. Canna 'Perseus'
30. Canna 'Phoebe'
31. Canna 'Pluto'
32. Canna 'Prof. Treub'
33. Canna 'Rhea'
34. Canna 'Roi Humbert'
35. Canna 'Roi Leopold'
36. Canna 'Roma'
37. Canna 'Romagna'
38. Canna 'Sicilia'
39. Canna 'Suevia'
40. Canna 'Trinacria'
41. Canna 'Umbria'
42. Canna 'Wilhelm Beck'

What is not so well known, is that Sprenger also released many new Crozy Group cultivars. Some of those are:^[5]

1. Canna 'Aetna'
2. Canna 'Ajax'
3. Canna 'Alkmene'
4. Canna 'Arethusa'
5. Canna 'Capri'
6. Canna 'Königin von Italien'
7. Canna 'Kronprinz von Italien'
8. Canna 'Madame Oscar Meuricoffre'
9. Canna 'Nero'
10. Canna 'Paestum'
11. Canna 'Prinzessin Laetitia'
12. Canna 'Professor Rossi'
13. Canna 'Solfatara'
14. Canna 'Stromboli'
15. Canna 'Sultana'

Yuccas

Sprenger created and named 122 beautiful Yucca hybrids in the years from 1897 to 1907:^[6]

Yucca treculeana canaliculata × Yucca recurvifolia (= Yucca treculeana × Yucca recurvifolia)

• Yucca × Elwesiana
• Yucca × Fosterana
• Yucca × Lawrensceana
• Yucca × Diana

Yucca treculeana canaliculata × gloriosa(= Yucca treculeana × Yucca gloriosa)

• Yucca × Minerva

Yucca gloriosa × filamentosa

• Yucca × Nicotrana (no pollen)
• Yucca × Rex (Yucca gloriosa minor × Yucca filamentosa)

Yucca gloriosa robusta × flaccida

• Yucca × Dux

Yucca gloriosa longifolia x flaccida

• Yucca × luxurians

Yucca gloriosa plicata x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × Darwinii

Yucca flexilis × filamentosa

• Yucca × Augusta

Yucca flexilis × flaccida glaucescens

• Yucca × regalis

Yucca filamentosa x flexilis

• Yucca × Saturnus

Yucca flaccida x flexilis

• Yucca × Gaea

Yucca rupicola x gloriosa

• Yucca × aletrodes

Yucca rupicola x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × Sokrates

Yucca filamentosa x Yucca rupicola

• Yucca × liliacea
• Yucca × Psyche
• Yucca × Treleasei

Yucca flaccida x Yucca rupicola

• Yucca × amonea
• Yucca × Atropos
• Yucca × paradoxa

Yucca aloifolia x filamentosa

• Yucca × Adenophora
• Yucca × fastuosa
• Yucca × Ismene
• Yucca × linearis
• Yucca × linifolia
• Yucca × virescens

Yucca aloifolia x flaccida

• Yucca × Candolleana
• Yucca × columnaris
• Yucca × Oceanus

Yucca aloifolia x Yucca rupicola

• Yucca × smaragdina

Yucca aloifolia x Yucca gloriosa

• Yucca × Europa
• Yucca × Naudiniana
• Yucca × vomerensis

Yucca aloifolia gigantea x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × Heliodorus

Yucca aloifolia purpurea x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × Victor Emmanuel II (Vittorio Emanuele II)

Yucca aloifolia x flexilis

• Yucca × Casertana
• Yucca × Helios
• Yucca × Sieheana

Yucca aloifolia marginata x flexilis

• Yucca × Titanus

Yucca filamentosa x Yucca aloifolia

• Yucca × Ada
• Yucca × Alexandrae
• Yucca × Boissieri
• Yucca × Dohrnii
• Yucca × tulipfera
• Yucca 'Washington'

Yucca flaccida x Yucca aloifolia

• Yucca × Draco
• Yucca × Mariea
• Yucca × pygmaea
• Yucca × pyramidalis
• Yucca × Roland
• Yucca × stellaris
• Yucca × Theseus
• Yucca × tortilis

Yucca flexilis x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × grandis
• Yucca × superba

Yucca filamentosa x Yucca gloriosa

• Yucca × albella
• Yucca × candida
• Yucca × Engelmanii
• Yucca × ensata
• Yucca × floribunda
• Yucca × margaritacea
• Yucca × micans
• Yucca × Moraea
• Yucca × Parthenope
• Yucca × preacox
• Yucca × Rekowskiana
• Yucca × robusta
• Yucca × Triton
• Yucca × Wilhelmi (Gugielmi)

Yucca filamentosa media x Yucca gloriosa

• Yucca × bicolor
• Yucca × elegantissima
• Yucca × elmensis ('St. Elmo')

Yucca filamentosa x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × Aurora
• Yucca × Ceres
• Yucca × exsultans
• Yucca × Federicus Cäsar
• Yucca × Lachesis
• Yucca × lanceolata
• Yucca × Magnolia
• Yucca × peregrina
• Yucca × princeps
• Yucca × viridiflora
• Yucca × Willmottiana

Yucca filamentosa media x Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × fulgens
• Yucca × Imperator
• Yucca × regia
• Yucca × Sanderana
• Yucca × victorialis
• Yucca × Klotho
• Yucca × Cybele
• Yucca × imperialis
• Yucca × Koelleana
• Yucca × Milton
• Yucca × Passiflora
• Yucca × purpurascens
• Yucca × Tenoreana
• Yucca × Virgilius
• Yucca × Wittmackiana

Yucca flaccida × Yucca gloriosa longifolia

• Yucca × luxurians

Yucca flaccida glaucescens × Yucca gloriosa

• Yucca × Colombiana
• Yucca × formosa
• Yucca × formosissima
• Yucca × nebularis

Yucca flaccida glaucescens × Yucca recurvifolia

• Yucca × amabilis
• Yucca × campanulata
• Yucca × caelestis
• Yucca 'Eros'
• Yucca 'Flora'
• Yucca 'Luna'
• Yucca × grasilis

Others

• Sprenger's asparagus (A. densiflorus), a weed native to South Africa.^[7]
• Sprenger's magnolia (M. sprengeri), a species of magnolia native to China.^[8][9]

The standard author abbreviation Sprenger is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[10]

See also

• Canna
• List of Canna cultivars
• List of Canna species
• List of Canna hybridists
• Yucca

References

1. ^ John Hendley Barnhart (1965). Biographical Notes upon Botanists. G.K. Hall & Co. (Boston).
2. ^ ^{a b c} David Fairchild, - The World was My Garden
3. ^ Garden and Forest. / Volume 8, Issue 409. [December 25, 1895, 511-520]
4. ^ Garden and forest. / Volume 9, Issue 432. [June 3, 1896, 221-230]
5. ^ ^{a b} Árpád Mühle, 1909. Das Geschlecht der Canna
6. ^ Benny's Kaktus
7. ^ What's in a name?
8. ^ The Royal Horticultural Society
9. ^ Photo of M. sprengeri flowers
10. ^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do. 

Recommended reading

• Garden and Forest. / Volume 8, Issue 409. [December 25, 1895, 511-520]
• Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry, The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Privately Published, 1907
• David Fairchild, - The World was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938
• John Hendley Barnhart (1965). Biographical Notes upon Botanists. G.K. Hall & Co. (Boston).
• Árpád Mühle, 1909. Das Geschlecht der Canna
• Sprenger, Carl., Mitteilungen Deutschen Dendrol. Gesell. 29: 96-138 + pls.: 21-22. (1920)
• Mitteilungen über meine Yucca-Hybriden und -Formen, gezüchtet in den Jahren 1897-1907.

External links

• Who was Carl Ludwig Sprenger?
• Canna News: Was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius the cause?
• Canna News: Sprenger was a busy botanist
• The Royal Horticultural Society
• Photo of Magnolia sprengeri flowers