Georg Scholl (24 October 1751 – 17 May 1831) was a gardener at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, best known for his botanical collecting expeditions to the Cape of South Africa in the late 18th century.
Life and Career
Scholl was born in Weilbach, Bavaria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was sent by Emperor Joseph II as an assistant to gardener-botanist Franz Boos on a collecting expedition to the Cape of South Africa to gather specimens for the royal gardens and cabinet. They arrived at the end of May 1786.
At the Cape, Scholl completed several short collecting trips with the Scottish botanist Francis Masson and commissar Robert Jacob Gordon. When Boos departed for the Mascarene Islands on 18 February 1787, Scholl remained at the Cape. Boos returned a year later with such a large quantity of material that it could not be transported in a single consignment. Boos sailed for Europe on 5 February 1788, but Scholl remained at the Cape for another 14 years before returning to Europe.
Based on the collections, Scholl (alone or with Boos) traveled as far north as Namaqualand and east to Kaffraria. From a horticultural standpoint, the collections greatly enriched the gardens at Schönbrunn Palace. Much of the new plant material was described and illustrated in the botanical works of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin.
Scholl died in Vienna in 1831.
