| Activity | Engler was the leading plant systematist and phytogeographer of his era--perhaps of any era. He wrote and/or edited several important works on these subjects, also founding and serving as the editor of the journal Botanische Jahrbücher. His plant classification system, based largely on morphological characteristics and embracing Darwinian principles (but often falling short of these on an evidential basis), replaced the older Linnean system and became the world standard for almost one hundred years. He is also remembered for his important contributions to plant geography, in which he argued for the central importance of geological history and evolution (in turn relating phylogeny to distribution), for his directorship of the Botanischer Garten in Berlin for over twenty years, and for his many publications on African plants (beginning with his dissertation, on the genus Saxifraga).
Appointed lecturer and herbarium curator at Munich 1871 - 1878, he was appointed as the chair of systematic botany at the University of Kiel 1878 - 1884. From 1880 - 1930 he founded and edited Botanische Jahrbucher. From 1884 - 1889 he was professor of systematic biology at University of Breslau where he was also director of the Botanical Gardens. From 1889 - 1921 he was professor of Botany and director of the botanical gardens in Berlin and in 1925 he was made an honorary member of the German Academy of Naturalists Leopoldina. |