Hansjörg Eichler

Hansjörg Eichler (1 April 1916 – 22 June 1992) was a German-born botanist, educated in Europe, who worked in Europe and Australia, and whose greatest contribution was to Australian botany.

Life
Hansjörg Eichler, the son of architect, Gustav Eichler, and painter, Anna Eichler (née Sellin), was born in Ravensburg in 1916. At the Ravensburg school, one of his teachers was Karl Bertsch, a leading Württemberg botanist, who stimulated his interest in botany and took him on private botanical excursions. In 1936, the family moved to Berlin, and Eichler started working at the Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem (as a volunteer) under the tutelage of Friedrich Ludwig E Diels, at the same time having enrolled at the University of Berlin, to study botany and chemistry. The work at the Botanisches Museum ceased in 1943 when a bombing raid wrecked the museum. In 1944, he was exempted from war service to allow him to both study and work at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kulturpflanzenforschung (now the Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung) in Vienna.

After the war (1946–1949), he was able to continue his studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, and, in 1950, received his Doctorate in Natural Sciences for a thesis on floristic and phyto-oenological investigations into the Hakel. He married Marie-Louise Möhring in 1953, and went to Parma, and from there to the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis in Leiden, to work on Ranunculaceae.

In 1955, he was appointed the first Keeper of the State Herbarium of South Australia (1955–1972), and then curator of the Herbarium Australiense (which later became the Australian National Herbarium), within the CSIRO division of Plant Industry, a position held from 1973 until his retirement in 1981. In Canberra, he founded the journal, Brunonia.

In 1993 the Australian Systematic Botany Society established the Hansjörg Eichler Research Fund in his honour, and makes awards for projects contributing to Australian systematic botany. His personal herbarium of over 24, 000 specimens was divided between the State Herbarium of South Australia and the Australian National Herbarium.

Work
In addition to his contributions to botany in his roles at the State Herbarium of South Australia and later at the Australian National Herbarium, he contributed both nationally and internationally via service on many committees:
 * Committee for Spermatophyta, International Association for Plant Taxonomy (1968–1992)
 * Committee for Nomina Conservanda, International Association for Plant Taxonomy (1975–1981)
 * Special committee for Orthography, International Association for Plant Taxonomy (1982–1987)
 * Editorial committee World Pollen and Spore Flora (1972–1975)
 * Advisory committee, Australian Journal of Botany (1972–1977)
 * Editorial committee, Index Holmensis (1974–1992)
 * Chair, editorial board, Brunonia (1977–1982)
 * Editorial committee, Flora of Australia (1980–1985)

Selected publications

 * (1958) Revision der Ranunculaceen Malesiens. Stuttgart. (Trove listing – book)
 * – & Black, J.M. (1965) Supplement to J.M. Black's Flora of South Australia. (2nd Edition, 1943–1957). W.L. Hawes.
 * (1963) Some New Names and New Combinations Relevant to the Australian Flora. Taxon 12: 295–297.
 * Benl, G, & – (1982) Ptilotus pedleyanus, a new species of Amaranthaceae from Queensland. Brunonia 4(2): 199–207.

Published names
APNI gives some 91 published names. IPNI (with duplication) lists 152.

1. Actinobole uliginosum (A.Gray) H.Eichler

2. Agrostis spicatus H.Eichler, orth. var.

3. Amyema miraculosa var. boormanii (Blakely) H.Eichler

4. Amyema miraculosa (Miq.) Tiegh. var. miraculosa

5. Aristida contorta var. hirsuta (Henrard) H.Eichler

6. Asparagus medeloides H.Eichler, orth. var.

7. Atriplex acutibracta H.Eichler, orth. var.

8. Atriplex acutibracta subsp. acutibracta H.Eichler, orth. var.

9. Atriplex acutibracta subsp. karonensis H.Eichler, orth. var.

10. Atriplex cinerea var. adscendens (Nees) H.Eichler

11. Atriplex leptocarpa f. inermis H.Eichler, nom. inval., nom. nud.

12. Atriplex macropterocarpa (Aellen) H.Eichler

13. Bulbinopsis semibarbata var. depilata (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

14. Calandrinia neesiana H.Eichler

15. Callistemon macropunctatus var. laevifolius (F.Muell. ex Miq.) H.Eichler

16. Centaurium littoralis H.Eichler, orth. var.

17. Clematis leptophylla (F.Muell. ex Benth.) H.Eichler

18. Datura meteleoides H.Eichler, orth. var.

19. Diplotaxis muralis var. caulescens H.Eichler, orth. var.

20. Eucalyptus brachycalyx var. protrusa (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

21. Eucalyptus clelandii H.Eichler, orth. var.

22. Evax pygmea H.Eichler, orth. var.

23. Exocarpos strictus var. syrticolus H.Eichler, orth. var.

24. Filago pygmea H.Eichler, orth. var.

25. Gasoul aitonis (Jacq.) H.Eichler

26. Glochidion hirtellus (F.Muell.) H.Eichler

27. Glochidion rhytidospermum (Müll.Arg.) H.Eichler

28. Glochidion rigens (F.Muell.) H.Eichler

29. Glochidion thesioides H.Eichler

30. Glochidion trachyspermum (F.Muell.) H.Eichler

31. Gnephosis foliata (Sond.) H.Eichler

32. Hannafordia bissellii H.Eichler, orth. var.

33. Helichrysum lindleyi H.Eichler

34. Helichrysum monochaetum (F.Muell.) H.Eichler

35. Helixia H.Eichler orth. var.

36. Helixia setifolia H.Eichler, orth. var.

37. Homalosciadium homalocarpum (F.Muell.) H.Eichler

38. Hydrocotyle coorowensis H.Eichler MS

39. Hydrocotyle coraginaensis H.Eichler MS

40. Hydrocotyle crassipes H.Eichler MS

41. Hydrocotyle decipiens H.Eichler MS

42. Hydrocotyle foveolata H.Eichler

43. Hydrocotyle hamelinensis H.Eichler MS

44. Hydrocotyle sp. Harts Range (A.C.Beauglehole 44720) H.Eichler

45. Hydrocotyle hexaptera H.Eichler MS

46. Hydrocotyle puberula H.Eichler MS

47. Hydrocotyle vigintimilia H.Eichler MS

48. Hydrocotyle sp. Watarrka (A.C.Beauglehole 20471) H.Eichler

49. Indigofera dominii H.Eichler, nom. illeg., nom. superfl.

50. Lilaeopsis polyantha (Gand.) H.Eichler

51. Luzula rhadiana H.Eichler, orth. var.

52. Lysiana exocarpi (Behr) Tiegh. f. exocarpi

53. Lysiana exocarpi f. flavescens (F.Muell. ex Miq.) H.Eichler

54. Machaerina rubiginosa (Spreng.) H.Eichler, isonym

55. Machaerina tetragona H.Eichler, nom. inval.

56. Nymphoides crenatum H.Eichler, orth. var.

57. Nymphoides exiliflorum H.Eichler, orth. var.

58. Nymphoides geminatum H.Eichler, orth. var.

59. Nymphoides stygia (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

60. Nymphoides stygium H.Eichler, orth. var.

61. Pectinellia H.Eichler, orth. var.

62. Pectinellia griffithii H.Eichler, orth. var.

63. Phyllanthus hirtellus var. parviflorus (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

64. Platysace heterophylla var. tepperi (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

65. Platysace rupestris H.Eichler MS

66. Psychrophila phylloptera (A.W.Hill) H.Eichler

67. Ptilotus helipteroides var. minor (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

68. Ranunculus hamatosetosus H.Eichler

69. Ranunculus lourteigiae H.Eichler

70. Ranunculus pentandrus var. platycarpus (F.Muell.) H.Eichler

71. Salicornia australasica (Moq.) H.Eichler

72. Sarojusticia kempeana (F.Muell.) Bremek. ex H.Eichler

73. Sarojusticia kempeana (F.Muell.) Bremek. ex H.Eichler subsp. kempeana

74. Solanum symonii H.Eichler

75. Swainsona sericea (A.T.Lee) J.M.Black ex H.Eichler

76. Tetragonia amplexicoma H.Eichler, orth. var.

77. Trachymene ornata var. semilanata (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

78. Trianthema chrystallina H.Eichler, orth. var.

79. Trianthema triquetra var. clavata H.Eichler, orth. var.

80. Trianthema triquetrum var. clavatum (J.M.Black) H.Eichler

81. Tribulopis affinis (W.Fitzg.) H.Eichler

82. Tribulopis sessilis (Domin) H.Eichler

83. Wahlenbergia fluminale E.Wimm. ex H.Eichler, orth. var.

84. Wahlenbergia fluminalis (J.M.Black) E.Wimm. ex H.Eichler

85. Zaleya galericulata (Melville) H.Eichler

86. Zygophyllum angustifolium H.Eichler

87. Zygophyllum aurantiacum var. eremaeum (Diels) H.Eichler

88. Zygophyllum confluens H.Eichler

89. Zygophyllum emarginatum H.Eichler

90. Zygophyllum simile H.Eichler

91. Zygophyllum sonderi H.Eichler

Honours

 * In 1979, he was awarded the Willdenow Medal (awarded by the Berlin-Dahlem Herbarium) for his work towards the restoration of Berlin-Dahlem Herbarium.

Some plants named for him

 * Chionogentias eichleri L.G.Adams (Gentianaceae) Austral. Syst. Bot. 8(5): 973 (1995)
 * Picris eichleri Lack & S.Holzapfel (Asteraceae) Willdenowia 23(1–2): 188. (1993)
 * Ptilotus eichlerianus Benl (Amaranthaceae) Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung München 7: 310. (1970)
 * Ranunculus eichlerianus B.G.Briggs (Ranunculaceae) Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 84: 313 (1959)