Sphagnum Moss Journal — Gottlieb von Koch 1909 Jung-Koch-Quentell Educational Wall Charts Botanical Illustration

In 1909, a professor of botany at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt produced a series of wall charts that would hang in German classrooms for decades. Gottlieb von Koch's Jung-Koch-Quentell plates brought the microscopic world of plant anatomy into focus against a dark background that made science look like art — and made the smallest plants in the bog feel as monumental as any cathedral.

The front cover reproduces Gottlieb von Koch's Sphagnum acutifolium plate from the Jung-Koch-Quentell Wandtafeln series (Friedrich Quentell & Heinrich Jung, 1909), Leipzig — pointed bog moss documented with microscopic precision: hyaline water-reservoir cells, archegonium, and sporophyte anatomy rendered against the series' characteristic dark background that transforms botanical diagrams into compositions of striking scientific beauty. The back cover presents the companion plate of Hippuris vulgaris (Mare's-tail), the aquatic plant of European wetlands, with its radial whorls, stem cross-section, and morphological details documented with the same pedagogical rigour of the Wilhelmine botanical education tradition.

Product Details

• Format: 5.75 × 8 in (14.6 × 20.3 cm)
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets)
• Perforated pages — tear out cleanly without damaging the binding
• Paper weight: 100 gsm, suitable for fountain pens and pencils
• Hardcover with matte finish, casewrap sewn binding
• Weight: 400 g (14.1 oz)

Perfect For

• Bryologists and moss enthusiasts drawn to the German botanical tradition
• Bog and wetland ecologists documenting field observations
• Collectors of vintage German educational wall charts and Wandtafeln
• Lovers of early 20th-century scientific pedagogy and botanical illustration
• Everyday writing, field notes, and daily planning
• Thoughtful gifts for botanists, ecologists, and nature lovers

Read more: The Wandtafeln: Gottlieb von Koch and the Botanical Pedagogy of Wilhelmine Germany