{{Short description|Danish botanical collector and apothecary}} {{Infobox scientist | birth_date = {{birth date|1795|12|17|df=yes}} | birth_place = Åbenrå, Denmark | death_date = {{death date and age|1868|12|1|1795|12|17|df=yes}} | fields = Botany, apothecary | author_abbrev_bot = '''Eckl.''' | death_place = Cape Town, Cape Colony | known_for = Research on plants of South Africa }}
'''Christian Friedrich Ecklon''' (17 December 1795 – 1 December 1868) was a Danish botanical collector and apothecary. Ecklon is especially known for being an avid collector and researcher of plants in South Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.ipni.org/a/2457-1 |title= Ecklon, Christian Friedrich (Frederik) (1795-1868)|website= International Plant Names Index |access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>
==Biography== Ecklon was from Åbenrå, Denmark. He was trained as a pharmacist in Kiel. He first went to South Africa in 1823. During his visit he worked as an apothecary whilst also looking for plants with medicinal value. A shortage of funds and deteriorating health forced him to live in poor circumstances. When he returned to Europe in 1828, he had collected an extensive herbarium and published first specimens of his voyages as an exsiccata in cooperation with Unio Itineraria, a Württemberg Botanical Society which had been organized by botanist Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (1787–1860) and physician Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel (1783–1856).<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=833 |title= Ecklon, Christian Friedrich|website= Biographical Database of Southern African Science|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Unio itineraria 1828: IndExs ExsiccataID=2147200142 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=2147200142 |access-date=29 May 2025}}</ref> During his stay in Hamburg from 1833 to 1838, he worked on revising his collection. This herbarium would become the basis for the ''Flora Capensis'' (1860–1865) by his friend, Hamburg botanist Otto Wilhelm Sonder (1812–1881) in collaboration with the British botanist William Henry Harvey (1811–1866). The herbarium was later sold to Unio Itineraria.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=833 |title= Ecklon, Christian Friedrich|website= Biographical Database of Southern African Science|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000003679 |title= Hochstetter, Christian Ferdinand Friedrich |website= jstor.org |access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.leopoldina.org/mitglieder/mitgliederverzeichnis/mitglieder/member/Member/show/6786/|title= Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel |website= Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina |access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Unio itineraria: IndExs ExsiccataID=1432042367 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1432042367 |access-date=5 June 2024}}</ref>
Ecklon received a travel scholarship from the Danish government and in 1829 he went again to Cape Town where until 1833, together with the German botanist and entomologist, Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher (1799–1858), he collected a sizable herbarium, a large part of which was handed over to the University of Copenhagen and the University of Kiel. From 1833-38, he lived in Hamburg and began the publication of descriptions of South African plants in ''Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis Extratropicae'', a descriptive catalogue of South African plants in three parts which appeared (1835–37). With Zeyher he issued the exsiccata-like specimen series ''Plantae Africae australis extratropicae''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Plantae Africae australis extratropicae: IndExs ExsiccataID=1226760703 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=1226760703 |access-date=5 June 2024}}</ref> In 1838 he travelled again to the Cape where he remained until his death in 1868.<ref> {{cite web|url= https://www.nrm.se/english/researchandcollections/researchdivision/phanerogamicbotany/botanicalhistory/ecklonochzeyher.13420_en.html |title= Christian Friedrich Ecklon and Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher|website= The Swedish Museum of Natural History|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Enumeratio_Plantarum_Africae_Australis |title= Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis |website= Wikispecies|access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>
==Legacy== According to IPNI, Ecklon named a total of 1,974 different genera or species. The genus ''Ecklonia'' (a genus of kelp (brown algae) belonging to the family Lessoniaceae<ref>{{AlgaeBase genus|name=Ecklonia|id=35713}}</ref>), including Ecklon's kelp (''Ecklonia biruncinata'' or ''E. radiata''), as well as Ecklon's Purple Iceplant (''Delosperma ecklonis'' 'Bright Eyes') and Ecklon's Everlasting (''Helichrysum ecklonis'') were named in his honour. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation '''<span class="vcard"><span class="fn n"><span class="nickname">Eckl.</span></span></span>''' when citing a botanical name.<ref>{{cite book|last = Brummitt|first = R. K.|author2=C. E. Powell|title = Authors of Plant Names |publisher = Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |year = 1992 |isbn = 1-84246-085-4}}</ref> Specimens collected by Ecklon are cared for at multiple herbaria, including the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.<ref name="MEL">{{Cite web| url = https://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?q=collector_text%3A%22Ecklon%22+AND+collection_uid%3Aco55| title = AVH: The Australasian Virtual Herbarium| website = Atlas of Living Australia| access-date = 15 November 2024}}</ref> <!--{{botanist|Ecklon |Ecklon, Christian Friedrich}}-->
==References== <references/>
==Other Sources== *William H. Harvey, Otto Wilhelm Sonder, William Turner Thiselton-Dyer (Editor). ''Flora Capensis: Being a Systematic Description of the Plants of the Cape Colony, Caffraria, & Port Natal (and Neighbouring Territories)'' (January 1900); {{ISBN|3-7682-0637-8}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecklon, Christian Friedrich}} Category:1795 births Category:1868 deaths Category:People from Aabenraa Category:Botanists with author abbreviations Category:19th-century Danish botanists Category:Danish entomologists Category:Danish explorers Category:Botanists active in Africa