Zoe’s Adventures

I learned from Wikipedia, Zoysia was named after Austrian botanist Karl von Zois.  Since Wikipedia is by no means infallible, I wanted 3rd party verification. Every source I found seems to agree that the man’s name was Karl von Zois. Some sources add a ‘zu Laubach’ after his name. I have no idea what the significance of that is. If von in German means ‘of’, and ‘zu’ means ‘to’, then perhaps Herr Zois was ancestrally from a place called Zois and immigrated to Laubach? Bach means ‘stream’, which leads me to believe that Laubach is a place.  Herr von Zois died about 1800.

What his nationality was is a bit unclear. Some say German, some say Austrian.  Though I suppose during von Zois’ lifetime, it was the same thing.