Karl Koch (botanist)


Karl Heinrich Emil Koch was a German botanist. He is best known for his botanical explorations in the Caucasus region, including northeast Turkey. Most of his collections have today been lost. He is also known as the first professional horticultural officer in Germany.

Biography

He was born in Ettersburg near Weimar, Germany. He studied at the universities of Jena and Würzburg and taught, as privatdocent, at the University of Jena beginning 1834. He became an associate professor in 1836. He undertook a journey of research into southern Russia in 1836–38, and a second in 1843–44. The fruit of this second trip, in which he also visited Asia Minor, Great Armenia, the Caspian Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains, was his .
After his second journey, he settled at the University of Berlin in 1847, where he was later appointed assistant professor. He was at the Berlin botanical gardens beginning in 1849. He became general secretary of the Berlin Horticultural Society, in which capacity he published . In 1859, he was appointed professor of the Agricultural High School in Berlin. He died in Berlin.

Writings

Besides the travel book already mentioned, Koch wrote "Reise durch Russland nach dem kaukasischen Isthmus", "Fährtenabdrücke im bunten Sandstein", "Hortus dendrologicus", "Dendrologie", and other works.