Franz Wilhelm Sieber (30 March 1789 – 17 December 1844[1]) was a botanist and collector who travelled to Europe, the Middle East, Southern Africa and Australia.
He spent seven months in Sydney (then more usually called Port Jackson) from 1 June 1823 until December 1823 where he collected 645 local plant specimens.
[2] He never reached the Western hemisphere (in contradistinction to Friedrich Wilhelm Sieber, an employee of Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg), but sent several people to make collections for him, notably Franz Kohaut in the Antilles and Wenceslas Bojer on Mauritius.
Having “discovered” a cure for rabies he appeared in front of the city elders of Prague and demanded financial support.
Soon thereafter he landed in the Prague insane asylum, where he spent the fourteen final years of his life, dying there in 1844 at the age of fifty-five.