Georg August Zenker (11 June 1855 in Leipzig – 6 February 1922 in Bipindi) was a German gardener and naturalist.
He worked as a gardener at the botanical gardens in Leipzig and Naples, and in 1886, on behalf of the Italian government, traveled as a researcher to Africa. Subsequently, he was put in charge of the Sibange Farm, located near Libreville (Gabon), and later on, he worked as a preparator at Yaoundé Station in Kamerun. In 1895 he quit the colonial service and returned to Germany, but soon afterwards, he went back to Kamerun as a private citizen and established a plantation at Bipindi, where he grew coffee, cacao and rubber.[1]
During his many years spent in Kamerun, he amassed an enormous collection of botanical, zoological and ethnographic items. Between 1912 and 1914 he edited the exsiccata Plantae Kamerunenses.[2] Unfortunately, his botanical specimens sent to Berlin were for the most part destroyed during World War II.[1] His name is associated with numerous plant and animal taxa; a few examples being: