Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter

Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter (February 16, 1787 – February 20, 1860) was a German botanist and Protestant minister born in Stuttgart. He was the father of geologist Ferdinand Hochstetter (1829–1884).

In 1807 Hochstetter received his degree of Master of Divinity in Tübingen. While still a student, he became a member of a secret organization headed by Carl Ludwig Reichenbach (1788–1869) that had designs on establishing a colony on Tahiti (Otaheiti-Gesellschaft). In 1808 the organization was discovered by authorities, and its members suspected of treason and arrested. Hochstetter was imprisoned for a short period of time for his small role in the secret society.

Later on, he spent six months as a teacher in a private institution in Erlangen, and afterwards was a tutor for four years in the house of the Minister of Altenstein. In 1816 he became a pastor and school inspector in Brno, moving to Esslingen am Neckar in 1824. Here he worked as an instructor at the seminary school, becoming a pastor in 1829. At Esslingen, he organised Unio Itineraria (a part natural history dealership, part botanical exchange club) with Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel. Unio Itineraria sold specimens to private collectors, museums and dealers in other European cities, including London, where they maintained an agent.

Hochstetter published numerous works on botany, mineralogy and natural history as well as on theology and education. With Steudel (1783–1856), he published a book covering botanical species of Germany and Switzerland called Enumeratio plantarum Germaniae Helvetiaeque indigenarum, and with Moritz August Seubert (1818–1878), he published Flora Azorica, a treatise on the flora of the Azores.

The botanical genus Hochstetteria of the family Asteraceae is named after him. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Hochst. when citing a botanical name. He is the taxonomic author or co-author of numerous botanical genera and species.