Karl August Otto Hoffmann (25 October 1853 in

Beeskow Beeskow ( dsb, Bezkow) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, and capital of the Oder-Spree district. It is situated on the river Spree, 30 km southwest of Frankfurt an der Oder. Demography File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Beeskow.pdf, Developm ...

– 11 September 1909) was a German botanist and a high school teacher in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. Author of ''Sertum plantarum madagascariensium'', the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Hoffmanniella'' in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

was named after him by

Rudolf Schlechter Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids. He went on botanical expeditions in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea, South and Central America and ...

. The plant genus of '' Hoffmannanthus'' (also in the family of Asteraceae was named after him in 2014. He studied mathematics and natural history at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

, later performing graduate studies at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. Beginning in 1877, he taught classes at the ''Friedrichswerdersches Gymnasium'' in

. He died in September 1909, following an operation for appendicitis. He donated his impressive herbarium to the Berlin Herbarium.A history of research in Compositae - Department of Botany
A history of research in Compositae: early beginnings to the Reading Meeting (1975) With Georg Carl Wilhelm Vatke, he processed botanical specimens collected by Johann Maria Hildebrandt in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. He also worked with the Madagascar collections of Christian Rutenberg and the botanical specimens collected by Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow and Eduard Teusz [] in the interior of Angola. He is best known for his investigations of the family

, of which he is the binomial author of many species.IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Hoffmann. He provided analyses of Asteraceae specimens collected by Auguste Chevalier in Africa and by Per Karl Hjalmar Dusén in

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

and

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...

. He made major contributions in Engler and Prantl's ''

Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien ''Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (1887–1915) by Adolf Engler (1844–1930) and Karl Anton Prantl is a complete revision of plant families down to generic level and often even further. As such it forms part of the Engler system of plant t ...

'' involving Asteraceae (806 genera).

References

External links

1853 births 1909 deaths People from Beeskow People from the Province of Brandenburg German taxonomists 19th-century German botanists 20th-century German botanists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni {{germany-botanist-stub