Buchnera

noun

Buch·nera

ˈbəknərə,

ˈbu̇k-

: a genus of herbs (family Scrophulariaceae) chiefly of warm regions with mostly opposite leaves and showy white or bluish purple flowers in bracted spikes see bluehearts

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, after Andreas Elias Büchner †1769 German physician and professor

Note: Genus introduced by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum (1753), vol. 2, p. 630. Though Linnaeus omits any bibliographical reference or mention of the dedicatee, the name Buchnera appears earlier in his Hortus Cliffortianus (Amsterdam, 1737), p. 501. Here he explicitly states that the person he has in mind is Andreas Elias Büchner (1701-69), an Erfurt physician and president of the Leopoldina (the leading German society of natural scientists), "to whom I owe a number of amicably communicated matters of interest" ("Character novi hujus generis, dicti in honorem Illustr. A.E. Büchneri, Academiae Imperialis L.C. [Leopoldino-Carolinae] Naturae Curiosorum Praesidis, cui plurima benevole communicata debeo curiosa").