Schouw was one of the first important plant geographers, and like many others of his time was significantly influenced by the writings of Alexander von Humboldt. Despite generally poor health he became an important figure: as a botanist, climatologist (for one groundbreaking study he arranged to have meteorological data collected systematically at locations across Denmark), field observer and collector, administrator, educator, writer, and even politician (he was a co-author of the new Danish constitution, for example). Schouw was a rather advanced thinker for his time, supporting the notion that national identities grew as a function of the relationship between natural landscape and a people, but not in such a manner that the one absolutely determined the characteristics of the other (Schouw's conclusions were later favorably commented on by George Perkins Marsh). His ideas in this direction were likely shaped by the extensive travels he undertook in his younger days; among the subjects that absorbed his attention were vegetational zonation patterns, and the notion that "different nationalities can share similar environments (as in Switzerland) and similar nationalities can share divergent environments (as in Scandinavia)" (Environment and History, Vol. 2, p. 19). Schouw was also an important early advocate of science education and popularization.