Sonder showed considerable interest in botany from a young age. Like many early botanists, he was trained in pharmacy – which relied on a good knowledge of plants as sources of medicine – and Sonder often embarked on botanical excursions before heading off to work. Throughout his life, Sonder struck up strong professional relationships with eminent botanists of his era. This helped him amass hundreds of thousands of botanical specimens from all over the globe.
This stunning depiction of the seaweed Sargassum natans was drawn by W.G. Tilesius von Tilenau (1769–1857) from a living specimen that he collected in the Sea of Japan in 1806. Tilesius von Tilenau worked as ship’s doctor, marine biologist and artist on the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe. His algae specimens from the remote North Pacific possibly came to Sonder’s herbarium via renowned phycologist Carl Agardh (1789– 1859).
The Herbarium holds thousands of specimens collected by Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1795– 1868) and Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher (1799–1858) in southern Africa in the early 19th century. Along with specimens collected by Wilhelm Gueinzius (1813– 1874) and William Harvey (1811– 1866), this material formed the basis of Sonder and Harvey’s major publication on the botany of southern Africa, Flora Capensis (1859–1860).
Sonder’s herbarium contained thousands of specimens that were used by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868) and others in the production of Flora Brasiliensis (1840– 1906). Martius collected this specimen of Myrcia tomentosa during his epic 10,000 km journey through Brazil between 1817 and 1820.
To date, we have uncovered over 200 specimens collected on David Livingstone’s expedition along the Zambesi River between 1858 and 1864. About three-quarters of them were collected by Dr John Kirk (1832–1922), the expedition’s physician and naturalist. The other quarter – including this beautiful specimen of Rhynchosia hirta – were collected by Dr Charles Meller (1836–1869).
Among significant early botanical collections from South America in Sonder’s herbarium are over 400 specimens collected by Prince Maximilian zu Wied (1782–1867). Wied was one of the earliest European naturalists to visit Brazil. Between 1815 and 1817 he gathered over 5000 specimens, which he later sold in lots to different collectors, including Sonder.