This is a good question and all I can find out so far is that wichmannii was described first by a person named De Candolle.Wild kava - the ancestor of kava is called piper wichmanni. What does "wichmanni" mean? Does it come from the surname Wichmann? If so, who was he?
The Taxon name "Piper wichmannii" was authored by the Swiss botanist Casimir de Candolle in 1910.Wild kava - the ancestor of kava is called piper wichmanni. What does "wichmanni" mean? Does it come from the surname Wichmann? If so, who was he?
Ahhh, you beat me to it! lolThis is a good question and all I can find out so far is that wichmannii was described first by a person named De Candolle.
This happened in 1910. Methysticum was 1st described by Forster in 1786. Interesting since wichmannii is considered
kava's Mom as stated by Lebot et. al.--"As P. methysticum ,as described first (Forster 1786), it has priority, and De Candolle's P. wichmannii (1910) is superfluous".
The even odder thing is that De Candolle was dead by 1910! So maybe that means he collected wichmannii and placed in in an herbarium and it was named later in 1910?? I cross referenced and it was definitely 1910 not 1810 so strange!!Ahhh, you beat me to it! lol
For real, you would think there would be more information regarding the naming of P. wichmannii like there is for P. methysticum
I emailed Lebot about this. Let's see what he has to say. Seriously I'm stumped as to where this came from, nor have I ever seen an explanation in literature.The even odder thing is that De Candolle was dead by 1910! So maybe that means he collected wichmannii and placed in in an herbarium and it was named later in 1910?? I cross referenced and it was definitely 1910 not 1810 so strange!!
I didn’t expect my question to reach Vincent LebotI emailed Lebot about this. Let's see what he has to say. Seriously I'm stumped as to where this came from, nor have I ever seen an explanation in literature.
Alphonse de Candolle was already dead but his son Casimir de Candolle lived. He was a botanist too, interested in the family PiperaceaeThe even odder thing is that De Candolle was dead by 1910! So maybe that means he collected wichmannii and placed in in an herbarium and it was named later in 1910?? I cross referenced and it was definitely 1910 not 1810 so strange!!
That's the beauty of our little community here. Where other herbs and traditional intoxicants are mired in opinions, we aim to give answers straight from, or as close to the source as possible. The more familiar we feel with kava, the information, and those researchers that bring us that information, the better off we are as a community.I didn’t expect my question to reach Vincent Lebot
Well then maybe it was the son, he died in 1918.I didn’t expect my question to reach Vincent Lebot
Alphonse de Candolle was already dead but his son Casimir de Candolle lived. He was a botanist too, interested in the family Piperaceae
I can see that I have missed one "i". Should be "wichmannii".
So maybe not from the surname.
Indeed.Wichmanii does show up in relation other plants and animals
So the mystery is unraveled!Mr. Louze of Kava-world.com stepped in and uncovered the answer!
"The species name Piper wichmannii was first assigned in 1910, by botanist Charles De Candolle, to a specimen collection during Wichmann's German expedition in 1903 who's mission was to identify the species of the Piperaceae family"
Siméoni Patricia, Lebot, V. (2014). Buveurs de Kava. Géo-consulte.