Johann Joseph Peyritsch was an Austrian physician and botanist who was a native of Völkermarkt

Völkermarkt

Völkermarkt is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants in Carinthia, Austria.According to the 2001 census 2.6% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes....

.

In 1864 he earned his medical doctorate from Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

, and from 1878 to 1889 was a professor of botany at the University of Innsbruck. He was editor of Heinrich Wilhelm Schott

Heinrich Wilhelm Schott

Heinrich Wilhelm Schott was an Austrian botanist well known for his extensive work on the aroids ....

's celebrated monograph

Monograph

A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...

 on aroids, Aroideae Maximilianae, and with Theodor Kotschy

Theodor Kotschy

Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy was an Austrian botanist and explorer who was a native of Ustroń, in Austrian Silesia. He was the son of theologian Carl Friedrich Kotschy .-Biography:...

 (1813-1866) was co-author of Plantae Tinneanae, a book describing flora collected on the Tinné

Alexandrine Tinné

Alexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne was a Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara...

 expedition to Sudan.

The plant genus Peyritschia from the family Poaceae

Poaceae

The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...

is named in his honor.