Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch (5 March 1771 – 14 November 1849) was a German physician and
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
from
Kusel, a town in the
Rhineland-Palatinate.
Koch studied medicine at the Universities of
Jena and
Marburg, and afterwards was a ''
Stadtphysicus'' (state physician) in
Trarbach
Traben-Trarbach on the Middle Moselle is a town in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'' and a state-recognized climatic spa (''Luftkurort''). The city lies in the ...
and
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
(1798). In 1824 he became a professor of medicine and
botany at the
University of Erlangen, where he stayed for the remainder of his life. At Erlangen, he was also director of the
botanical gardens. In 1833, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...
.
Among his better written efforts was a synopsis on German and Swiss flora titled ''Synopsis florae germanicae et helveticae'' (1835–37). Another noteworthy publication of his was ''Catalogus plantarum, quae in ditione Florae Palatinatus'' (Catalog of Palatinate flora) (1814).
He died in Erlangen.
He has been honoured in the naming of 2 plant
genera
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 nomenclat ...
; ''
Eokochia
''Eokochia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Amaranthaceae. The only species is ''Eokochia saxicola''.
Its native range is mainland Italy and Sicily.
The genus name is in honour of Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch (177 ...
'' (from the family
Amaranthaceae), and ''
Kochia'' (
Chenopodioideae
The Chenopodioideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae in the APG III system, which is largely based on molecular phylogeny, but were included - together with other subfamilies - in family Chenopodiaceae in the Cronquist ...
).
The Free Dictionary
Kochia
References
* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia.
Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...
'', namely
Wikisource, Wilhelm Koch
(Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language.
It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...
).
German taxonomists
1771 births
1849 deaths
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg faculty
18th-century German botanists
18th-century German physicians
19th-century German writers
19th-century German male writers
19th-century German botanists
19th-century German physicians
People from Kusel (district)
Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala
{{Germany-botanist-stub