Franz Carl Mertens was a German botanist who was a native of Bielefeld

Bielefeld

Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

. He specialized in the field of phycology

Phycology

Phycology is the scientific study of algae. Phycology is a branch of life science and often is regarded as a subdiscipline of botany....

.

Mertens studied theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 and languages at the University of Halle, and after graduation taught classes at Bremen

Bremen

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

 Polytechnic College. In his spare time he studied botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

, and through a mutual friend met German botanist Albrecht Wilhelm Roth

Albrecht Wilhelm Roth

Albrecht Wilhelm Roth was a physician and botanist who was a native of Dötlingen, Germany.He studied medicine at the Universities of Halle and Erlangen, where he received his doctorate in 1778....

 (1757–1834). With Roth, he took scientific expeditions throughout Europe, including Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

.

From these trips, Mertens described a number of species of algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

. He also performed illustrative work on Volume 3 of Roth's Catalecta botanica. With Erlangen

Erlangen

Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....

 professor Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch

Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch

Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch was a German physician and botanist from Kusel, a town in the Rhineland-Palatinate....

 (1771–1849), he published the third edition of Johann Christoph Röhling

Johann Christoph Röhling

Johann Christoph Röhling was a German botanist and clergyman who was a native of Gundernhausen, a town near Darmstadt.He studied theology in Giessen, and later taught school in Frankfurt am Main...

's Deutschlands flora, a five volume treatise on German flora.

The plant genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Mertensia

Mertensia

Mertensia is a genus of about 40 species of perennial herbaceous plants with bell-shaped blue flowers opening from pink-tinged buds. This is one of several plants commonly called bluebell.The genus is named after the German botanist Franz Carl Mertens....

from the family Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae

Boraginaceae, the Borage or Forget-me-not family, include a variety of shrubs, trees, and herbs, totaling about 2,000 species in 146 genera found worldwide.A number of familiar plants belong to this family....

 is named after him, while the ctenophore

Ctenophore

The Ctenophora are a phylum of animals that live in marine waters worldwide. Their most distinctive feature is the "combs", groups of cilia that they use for swimming, and they are the largest animals that swim by means of cilia – adults of various species range from a few millimeters to in size...

 genus Mertensia is named after his son Karl Heinrich Mertens

Karl Heinrich Mertens

Karl Heinrich Mertens , was a German botanist and naturalist, and son of the botanist Franz Carl Mertens....

(1796-1830).