Sigesbeckia is a genus of annual plants in the family Asteraceae, with a pantropical distribution and in some areas of Asia and South America also into temperate regions. St Paul's-wort or St. Paul's wort is a common name for some of the species. Sigesbeckia is widely distributed and has been traditionally used for the management of chronic diseases, including arthritis.
Origin
Sigesbeckia is named after the German botanist Johann Georg Siegesbeck (de), who was a strong critic of Carl Linnaeus's botanical classification system. Siegesbeck had referred to it as "loathsome harlotry" because of the focus of the system upon the presence (or absence) of sex organs in plants, and their locations and groupings. Siegesbeck tried to refute Linnaeus' sexual classification system, but was unable to provide sound scholastic arguments to support his arguments. Linnaeus proposed in Critica Botanica that there should be a link between the plant and the botanist after whom it was named. Considering the feud between Siegesbeck and Linnaeus, it is not surprising that in the classification book Hortus Cliffortianus, Linnaeus named a pungent weed Sigesbeckia.
