Goebel, Karl von

▪ German botanist

born March 8, 1855, Billigheim, Baden

died Oct. 9, 1932, Munich

      German botanist whose Organographie der Pflanzen (1898–1901; Organography of Plants, 1900–05) clarified the principles of the science of plant morphology in relation to form and structure.

      After receiving his Ph.D. in 1877, Goebel held a number of teaching positions and participated in numerous scientific expeditions to the South American Andes, the U.S. Rockies, the Indian Ghāts, the Middle East, and the New Zealand Alps. In his studies Goebel emphasized function as the determinant of form; thus, according to him, all structural characters are, or have been, adapted to their function, with a change in function producing a change in form. His ideas on form and function, fully expanded in his major work on Organographie, were an effective transition between the strictly observational and experimental approaches to botany.

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