Lachenalia zeyheri Wonderful scent
Named after Zeyher, Carl Ludwig Philip (Philipp) (1799-1858)
Carl Zeyher was born in Dillenberg, Hesse, and worked as a gardener in Germany before becoming a professional plant collector in South Africa in 1822.
He sailed for the Cape with his business partner, Frans Sieber, who continued on to Mauritius and Australia. Sieber returned to the Cape in 1824 and took Zeyher's collections with him, but Zeyher never saw any payment for his work. He nevertheless pressed on with his collecting, in Uitenhage (1825) and Clanwilliam (1828), sending what he gathered to his uncle, head gardener at Schwetzingen Castle.
From 1829-1838 Zeyer collected with Christian Friedrich Ecklon, who sold their specimens in Germany, though many were lost at sea and in a warehouse fire. Together they also completed Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis Extratropicae (1835-1837).
Zeyher went on to collect in the Transvaal in 1840-1843 with John Burke, for the Earl of Derby, and visited Kew with a consignment of specimens in 1843. He spent some time in Hamburg before returning to the Cape in 1847, where he was employed as a botanist at the botanical garden from 1849-1851. He passed away in 1858.
