Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy (15 April 1813 - 11 June 1866) was an Austrian botanist and explorer who was a native of Ustroń

Ustron

Ustroń is a health resort town in Cieszyn Silesia, southern Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship , having previously been in Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship . It lies in the Silesian Beskids mountain range....

, in Austrian Silesia

Cieszyn Silesia

Cieszyn Silesia or Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered around the towns of Cieszyn and Český Těšín and bisected by the Olza River. Since 1920 it has been divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic...

. He was the son of theologian Carl Friedrich Kotschy

Carl Friedrich Kotschy

Carl Friedrich Kotschy was an Austrian Protestant theologian and botanist who was born in Teschen . He was the father of botanist Theodor Kotschy ....

 (1789-1856).

Biography

From 1836 to 1862 he performed extensive botanical research throughout the Middle East and northeastern Africa in which he collected over 300,000 botanical specimens. In 1836-38 he accompanied geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 Joseph Russegger

Joseph Russegger

Joseph Russegger was an Austrian geologist who was a native of Salzburg.In 1825 he graduated from the Mining and Forestry Academy at Schemnitz, and subsequently worked for the Austrian government as a manager of mines at Böckstein near Bad Gastein.From 1836 to 1838 he was leader of a scientific...

 (1802-1863) on a scientific trip to Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...

, Syria, Egypt and Sudan. Afterwards he travelled to Kurdufan

Kurdufan

Kurdufan , also spelled Kordofan, is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kurdufan, South Kurdufan, and West Kurdufan...

 (1839), Cyprus (1840), and Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 (1841); and during 1842-43 he undertook an expedition to Persia. Later he performed botanical investigations in Egypt, Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 and Lebanon (1855); and also in Cyprus, Asia Minor and Kurdistan (1859). In 1862 he performed additional botanical research in Cyprus and Syria.

The plant genus Kotschya

Kotschya

Kotschya is a genus of about 30 species of legumes in the Fabaceae family.It contains the following species:* Kotschya platyphylla...

from the family Fabaceae

Fabaceae

The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...

 is named in his honor. His name is also associated with a species of gecko

Gecko

Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....

, Kotschy’s gecko (Cyrtopodion kotschyi).

Selected publications

• Abbildungen und Beschreibungen neuer und seltener Thiere und Pflanzen, in Syrien und im westlichen Taurus gesammelt, (Illustrations and Descriptions of New and Rare Animals and Plants, in Syria and western Taurus); (1843)
• Analecta botanica (with Heinrich Wilhelm Schott
  Heinrich Wilhelm Schott
  Heinrich Wilhelm Schott was an Austrian botanist well known for his extensive work on the aroids ....
  
   (1794-1865) and Carl Fredrik Nyman
  Carl Fredrik Nyman
  Carl Fredrik Nyman was a Swedish botanist who was a native of Stockholm. The plant genus Nymania is named in his honor....
  
   1820-1893), (1854)
• Coniferen des Cilicischen Taurus (Conifers of Cilician Taurus), (with Franz Antoine
  Franz Antoine
  Franz Antoine was an Austrian horticulturalist and gardener who was a native of Vienna....
  
   1815-1886), (1855)
• Die Eichen Europas und des Orients, (Oaks of Europe and the Orient); (1858-1862)
• Plantae Tinneanae (with Johann Joseph Peyritsch
  Johann Joseph Peyritsch
  Johann Joseph Peyritsch was an Austrian physician and botanist who was a native of Völkermarkt.In 1864 he earned his medical doctorate from Vienna, and from 1878 to 1889 was a professor of botany at the University of Innsbruck...
  
  1835-1889); (1867)