Joseph Pohl

Who was Joseph Pohl?

Joseph Pohl was a German botanical artist born in Breslau.

Apprenticed as an engraver, Pohl collaborated with botanist Adolf Engler for over forty years on several of Engler's important works. Pohl's work is acclaimed for its accuracy and not its artistic quality. His illustrations are considered especially valuable due to destruction of many of the actual plants midst the bombing of the Berlin herbarium during World War II. The following are a list of Engler's major publications that Pohl provided illustrations for:

Die naturlichen pflanzenfamilien

Das pflanzenreich

Die pflanzenwelt Afrikas

Monographien afrikanischer pflanzenfamilien

He also provided most of the illustrations for the journal Engler's Botanische Jahrbucher, and created orchid illustrations for Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius' Flora Brasiliensis. Engler named the botanical genus Pohliella from the family Podostemaceae in Pohl's honor.