Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy Polish: Teodor Koczy (15 April 1813 – 11 June 1866) was an Austrian botanist and explorer. On his botanical investigations, Kotschy collected large amounts of plants. For example, he described forty species of oak in this work, most of which are now considered synonyms, but Quercus look is recognised as valid.[1]
Kotschy was born in Ustroń in Austrian Silesia (today Poland). He was the son of theologian Carl Friedrich Kotschy (1789–1856).[2]
Kotschy studied theology in Vienna from 1833.From 1836 to 1862 he performed extensive botanical research throughout the Middle East and northern Africa, in which he collected over 300,000 botanical specimens. Beginning in 1836, he accompanied geologist Joseph Russegger (1802–1863) on a scientific trip to Cilicia and Syria, afterwards journeying through Nubia and Sennar. Following the dissolution with Russegger's expedition, he remained in Egypt. He later traveled to Kurdufan (1839), Cyprus, Syria, Mesopotamia and Kurdistan (1840–41);[3] and during 1842–43 he undertook an expedition to Persia. [4] The collections from 1840 and 1841 were partly distributed by the German scientific society Unio Itineraria as exsiccata-like series under the title Iter Nubicum.[5] On August 1, 1843, probably as the first European, he conquered the highest peak in today's Iran - Mount Damavand (5,609 m above sea level) in the Alborz.[6]
He was appointed Assistant Curator in 1847 and Custos-Adjunct in 1852 at Vienna. In 1862 he performed additional botanical research in Egypt, Palestine, and Lebanon (1855) in Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Kurdistan (1859), and back to Cyprus (1862). He died in Vienna at the age of 53.[7]
The plant genus Kotschya from the family Fabaceae is named in his honor. His name is associated with a species of lizard, "Kotschy’s gecko" (Cyrtopodion kotschyi),[8] with the Cyprus bee orchid (Ophrys kotschyi),[9] a crocus species (Crocus kotschyanus), discovered by him in SE Turkey, as well as the Lebanese oak species Quercus kotschyana.