Rudolph Jacob Camerarius

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Rudolph Jacob Camerarius

German botanist

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Feb 13, 2025 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: Feb. 17, 1665, Tübingen, Ger.

Died:: Sept. 11, 1721, Tübingen (aged 56)

Subjects Of Study:: plant; sexual reproduction

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Rudolph Jacob Camerarius (born Feb. 17, 1665, Tübingen, Ger.—died Sept. 11, 1721, Tübingen) was a botanist who demonstrated the existence of sexes in plants.

Professor of natural philosophy at the University of Tübingen, Camerarius was one of the first workers to perform experiments in heredity. He contributed particularly toward establishing sexual differentiation in plants by identifying and defining the male (anther) and female (pistil) reproductive parts of the plant and also by describing their function in fertilization. He showed that pollen is required for this process. He described his findings in the form of a letter to a colleague, De sexu plantarum (1694; “On the sex of plants”), and in Opuscula botanica (1697; “Botanical Works”).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.