Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (25 February 1806 – 20 October 1872) was an Austrian explorer and botanist who in Angola was the first European to describe the plant Welwitschia mirabilis.

His report received wide attention among the botanists and general public, comparable only to the discovery of two other plants in the 19th century, namely Victoria amazonica and Rafflesia arnoldii.

It was found a few years later in Sri Lanka too, which reignited the now already one-and-a-half-century-old debate on the origin of cacti in Africa and Asia.

[1] Among the botanists, Welwitsch is also known after his descriptions of numerous other plants, for example Cyphostemma macropus (common name: Butter Tree), Tavaresia angolensis (common name: Devil's Trumpet), Dorstenia psilurus, Sarcocaulon mossamedense, Acanthosicyos horridus, Pachypodium namaquanum and Pachypodium lealii.

[3] Botanical specimens collected by Welwitsch are now found in herbaria around the world, including the Natural History Museum, London, Kew Herbarium, the National Museum of Natural History and the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

[4] Friedrich Welwitsch was born at Maria Saal (Slovene: Gospa Sveta), Duchy of Carinthia, Austrian Empire, to the wealthy family of Joseph Anton Welwich, a local judicial officer and town councillor of Salzburg, and Genovefa Mayr.

[1] Contrary to the wishes of his father, who wanted him to study law,[6] Friedrich Welwitsch studied medicine and botany in Vienna and worked as a physician in the Austrian provinces of Carniola and Moravia, but his interest in the plant kingdom, where he discovered a number of plants hitherto unknown, was so great that in 1839 he abandoned the medical profession altogether.