Simon Schwendener is remembered for his investigations of plant anatomy and physiology, being interested in the inter-relationship between a plant's construction and its functionality. He took a mechanistic approach to his botanical studies, believing that a plant's anatomical structure conformed to principles of mechanics. He conducted extensive research on the mechanics of sap ascent, the construction of a leaf's pulvinus, the positioning of a plants' leaves, and the inner-workings between stomata and its guard cells.
List of publications copied from an article on Simon Schwendener at the French Wikipedia.
^Schwendener (1867). "(Ueber die wahre Natur der Flechten)" [On the true nature of lichens]. Verhandlungen der Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Rheinfelden Am 9., 10., und 11. September 1867 (Proceedings of the Swiss Scientific Society in Rheinfelden on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of September 1867) (in German). 51: 88–90. From p. 89: "Die jetzige Ansicht des Dozenten geht also dahin, dass die Flechten nicht selbstständige Pflanzen, sondern Pilze in Verbindung mit Algen seien, welch' letztere der erstern Nährpflanze bilden." (The present view of the docent [viz, Schwendener] is thus that lichens are not independent plants, but are fungi [which live] in a relationship with algae, which latter constitute food plants for the former.)