Pringsheim, Nathanael(nätän`äĕl prĭngs`hīm), 1823–94, German botanist, one of the founders of the scientific study of algae. He made important discoveries in the morphology and physiology of plants, especially in the fields of reproduction and evolution. He founded the German Botanical Society and the Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Botanik. His treatises are collected in Gesammelte Abhandlungen (4 vol., 1895–96).
Born Nov. 30, 1823, in Wziesko; died Oct. 6, 1894, in Berlin. German botanist.
In 1851, Pringsheim became a privatdocent at the University of Berlin. He received a professorship at the University of Jena in 1864 and at the University of Berlin in 1868. Pringsheim’s principal works were on the developmental cycle and the sexual process in algae. He described the merging of algal spermatozoids and ova. He also discovered apospory in mosses. Pringsheim studied the structure of chloroplasts and the role of chlorophyll in plants.