Species Merxmuellera rufa

For Hermann Merxmüller (1920–1988), German botanist, professor of botany at the University of Munich, director of National Botanical Archives (Botanische Staatssammlung), director of the Munich Botanical Gardens (1969–1985), and director of Institut für Systematische Botanik (Institute of Systematic Botany) at the University of Munich (1958). Merxmüller made six visits to Southern Africa and discovered nearly 100 species new to science; he also edited/published the Prodromus of the Flora of SWA (now Namibia) from 1966–1972. Of the 32 000 specimens he collected in Central Europe, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Canada, America, Venezuela, Brazil and Chile, about 6 000 were from Southern Africa.