Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler, was a German-born professor of botany and taxonomist, whose main area of interest was the Cactaceae. From a collection by Henri Guillaume Galeotti, he first described Ariocarpus retusus, type species of the genus in 1838 in Brussels.
He initially worked as a pharmacist and industrial chemist in Siegburg, Cologne and Aachen. In 1830 he settled in Belgium, first in Liège, later in Brussels. Beginning in 1851, he was an instructor at the horticultural college in Gentbrugge.
In 1854, the genus Scheidweileria was named in his honor by Johann Friedrich Klotzsch.
This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Scheidw. when citing a botanical name.