Happy Birthday, Leonhart Fuchs
Friday, January 17, 2025
Happy 524th Birthday to Leonhart Fuchs, born today on 17 January 1501.
Fr. Charles Plumier published the first fuchsia in honor of this esteemed German physician, botanist, and author of a sumptuously illustrated herbal in 1704. You can visit Dr. Fuchs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Unfortunately that’s a small nosegay in his hand, not a fluffy double fuchsia. Those won’t be around until sometime after the early 19th century. Oh well.
P.S. Fuchs simply means fox in German. If you rhyme his name with books in English, you’re close enough. People have the darndest time spelling fuchsia, though. I’ve collected about two dozen variations and occasionally a new one still surprises me. Just think fuchs+ia when you put pen to parchment and you’ll always get it right.

(Illustration. Portrait of Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566). Oil on Panel, German, 1535. Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.88.)
Fr. Charles Plumier published the first fuchsia in honor of this esteemed German physician, botanist, and author of a sumptuously illustrated herbal in 1704. You can visit Dr. Fuchs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Unfortunately that’s a small nosegay in his hand, not a fluffy double fuchsia. Those won’t be around until sometime after the early 19th century. Oh well.
P.S. Fuchs simply means fox in German. If you rhyme his name with books in English, you’re close enough. People have the darndest time spelling fuchsia, though. I’ve collected about two dozen variations and occasionally a new one still surprises me. Just think fuchs+ia when you put pen to parchment and you’ll always get it right.

(Illustration. Portrait of Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566). Oil on Panel, German, 1535. Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.88.)