David Heinrich Hoppe
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David Heinrich Hoppe (December 15, 1760 - August 1, 1846) was a German pharmacist, botanist and physician who was a native of Bruchhausen-Vilsen.
He began his career as a pharmacy apprentice in Celle, and subsequently was an assistant pharmacist in Hamburg, Halle, Wolfenbüttel and Regensburg. Afterwards he studied medicine and natural sciences at the University of Erlangen, and following graduation returned to Regensburg as a physician. Here he taught classes at the Regensburg Lyceum.
Hoppe is remembered for contributions made to the study of alpine flora. He studied the flora surrounding Regensburg, and each summer between 1796 and 1843 made botanical excursions to Salzburg and Heiligenblut. With bryologist Christian Friedrich Hornschuch (1793-1850) he published a treatise regarding an extended scientific journey to the Adriatic coast and the mountains of Carinthia and Tyrol called Tagebuch einer Botanischen Reise nach den Küsten des Adriatischen Meeres und den Gebirgen von Kärnten, Tirol und Salzburg.
In May, 1790 Hoppe founded the Regensburgische Botanical Society, which was the first botanical organization in Bavaria, and today is the world's oldest existing botanical society. From 1812 until his death in 1846 he was its director/chairman. He is credited for describing and naming over 200 plant species, and from 1818 to 1842 was editor of the popular journal Flora. Other important publications of Hoppe's are Ectypa plantarum ratisbonensium (1787-1793), a book involving the flora of Regensburg, and Caricologia Germanica (1835), which he worked on with engraver Jacob Sturm (1771-1848).
The plant genus Hoppea from the family Gentianaceae is named after him.
