Cornelius Osten facts for kids
Cornelius Osten was a German businessman and a plant expert, also known as a botanist. He was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1863 and passed away in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1936. He became famous for studying the many different plants found in Uruguay. He was especially interested in a plant family called Cyperaceae, which are commonly known as sedges.
In 1896, Cornelius Osten moved to Uruguay. There, he worked with José Arechavaleta, who was the director of the natural history museum in Montevideo. In 1934, a university in Germany, the University of Göttingen, gave him a special award called an honorary doctorate for his important work.
Cornelius Osten collected a huge number of plant samples, about 23,000 of them! This amazing collection, called a herbarium, was given to the natural history museum in Montevideo after he passed away. To honor his contributions to botany, a group of plants was named Ostenia after him by another botanist, Franz Georg Philipp Buchenau.
His Plant Studies
Cornelius Osten wrote several important books and papers about plants. These writings helped people learn more about the plants of Uruguay.
Important Books
- "Plantae Uruguayenses. 1 Pteridophyta", published in 1925, was about a group of plants called Pteridophyta found in Uruguay. He wrote this with Wilhelm Gustav Franz Herter.
- Las ciperáceas del Uruguay, published in 1931, focused on the sedge plants that grow naturally in Uruguay.
- Sobre el descubrimiento de una Gunnera en el pais, from 1933, was about finding a plant called Gunnera in Uruguay. He also wrote this with Wilhelm Gustav Franz Herter.
- Notas sobre cactáceas contained notes about cactus plants.
