Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker (1798 – 14 November 1874) was a Swiss missionary and
botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
born in
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
.
In the 1820s he was assigned to the
Swabian colony of
Helenendorf in the
Transcaucasus, where he served as a doctor and missionary. Eventually, his main focus involved collecting plants from the region. In 1841 he returned to Switzerland, where he took up residence in
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
. Shortly afterwards he relocated to
Esslingen, Germany (1842-1858), and in 1858 moved to the town of
Kirchheim unter Teck
Kirchheim unter Teck (, ; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Kircha'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in the Esslingen (district), district of Esslingen. It is located on the small river Lauter (Neckar), Lauter, a tributary of the Neckar. It i ...
.
Following his return from the Transcaucasus, Hohenacker earned his living selling
biological specimens of other collectors sorted in
exsiccatae and exsiccata-like series. Around 40 series edited by him are known, among many others ''Th. Kotschy. Pl. Alepp. Kurd. Moss. Ed. Hohenacker. 1843.'' with specimens collected by
Theodor Kotschy and ''Riedel pl. Brasiliae. Ed. R. F. Hohenacker'' with specimens collected by
Ludwig Riedel. All are listed with bibliographic data and examplary labels in
IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae.
[Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2025 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.] Hohenacker also contributed specimens to the German scientific society
Unio Itineraria for plant exchange until 1842. He was the author of ''Enumeratio Plantarum quas in itinere per provinciam Talysch collegit''.
In 1836 the botanical genus ''
Hohenackeria'' (family
Apiaceae
Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...
) was named in his honor by
Carl Anton von Meyer
Carl Anton von Meyer (in Russian: Карл Анто́нович фон Ме́йер, ''Karl Antonovich von Meyer'') (1 April 1795 – 24 February 1855) was a Germans, German, Russified botanist and explorer.
Meyer was born in Vitebsk. He received ...
and
Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer
Friedrich Ernst Ludwig Fischer (20 February 1782, Halberstadt – 17 June 1854) was a Russian botanist, born in the Holy Roman Empire. He was director of the St Petersburg botanical garden from 1823 to 1850.
In 1804 he obtained his medical docto ...
.
Hohenacker is commemorated in the scientific name of the
Transcaucasian ratsnake, ''Zamenis hohenackeri''.
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Hohenacker", p. 125).]
References
External links
Aluka, Hohenacker, Rudolph Friedrich (1798-1874)IPNIList of plants described and co-described by Hohenacker.
19th-century Swiss botanists
Scientists from Zurich
1798 births
1874 deaths
{{Switzerland-botanist-stub