Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Linnaeus. He described approximately 7,000 plant species (almost as many as Linnaeus himself). His last official act as president of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina was to admit Charles Darwin as a member. He was the author of numerous monographs on botany and zoology. His best-known works deal with fungi.
Nees von Esenbeck was born in Schloss Reichenberg near Reichelsheim (Odenwald). He showed an early interest in science and, after receiving his primary education in Darmstadt, he went on to the University of Jena, obtaining his degree in biology (natural history) and medicine in 1800. He practiced as a physician for Francis I (Erbach-Erbach), but he had developed a great interest in botany during his university studies, and eventually he returned to academia. In 1816, he joined the Leopoldina Academy, which was one of the most prestigious institutions in Europe. In 1817, he was appointed professor of botany at the University of Erlangen. Three years later, he became professor of natural history at the University of Bonn, where he established the Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, and in 1831, he was appointed to the chair of botany at the University of Breslau. In 1818, he was elected president of the Leopoldina Academy. He continued as president of the academy for the rest of his life.In botany he achieved notoriety for, among other things, contributions to the families Acanthaceae and Lauraceae.
He became politically active in the German revolutions of 1848–1849. In 1851, due to conflicts with the government, he was deprived of his professorship and pension at Breslau. Seven years later, Nees von Esenbeck died essentially penniless in Breslau. He was an older brother to botanist Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck (1787–1837).
In 1936, botanist Wilhelm Kirschstein published Myconeesia, a genus of fungi in the family Xylariaceae and named in his honour.[1] In 1940, botanist Pilg. published Neesiochloa is a genus of Brazilian plants in the grass family, in Nees von Esenbeck's honour.[2] [3] [4] Then in 1947, botanist Margaret Rutherford Bryan Levyns published Neesenbeckia, a monotypic genus of flowering plants from South Africa, belonging to the family Cyperaceae, in Nees von Esenbeck's honour.[5]