Karl Theodore Hartweg was born into a lineage of German gardeners. He was schooled in botany and found work first in Paris, then London.

In 1836, Hartweg, in the service of the London Horticultural Society, arrived in Mexico. His commission: collect seeds, roots and plants, primarily for introduction into gardens. Geographically, Hartweg was to search the tierra fria "cold lands", the montane regions of Mexico. The mountains were most likely to have plants suitable to survive the English climate.

Hartweg spent seven years roaming Mexico's tierra fria, as well as Central America, parts of northern South America and Jamaica. But he was not just another of the fortune seeking plant hunters of his day. Hartweg carefully kept journals of the botany of each area he visited; his work was published as Plantae Hartwegianae by George Bentham.

Hartweg returned to London for two years and received a second commission to search for plants on the western side of Mexico and California Alta (modern day California). In 1846, he traveled to Monterey, visited San Francisco, and roamed the Sacramento Valley and the foothills of the Sierras. He returned to London in 1848.

After all his years of travel, Hartweg returned to Germany and to a garden—the Grand Ducal Garden in Baden. He served as director until his death at age 59.

(Compiled from: W3TROPICOS Nomenclatural Data Base, Jim Solomon, Missouri Botanical Garden, 2007; A History of the Orchid, Merle A. Reinikka, Timber Press, Portland, OR, 1995; and Edward's Botanical Register, Volume III, John Lindley, ed., James Ridgway and Sons, Piccadilly, London, 1840)