Name Johan Rottler | Died 1836 | |
Johan Peter Rottler (June 1749 – 24 January 1836) was a French missionary and botanist, most associated with southern India.
He was born in Strasbourg, France in 1749, and studied there. He was ordained, and went as missionary to southern India in 1776. His first appointment was at the Danish Lutheran Tranquebar Mission at Tranquebar; in 1806, he moved to an English mission in Madras, where he died in 1836.
He was an enthusiastic botanist, who collected more than 2000 plant samples from southern India and sent them to Europe for study and research. He accompanied Lord North, the first British Governor of Ceylon, who in 1795 desired a scholar of botany to accompany him on a journey to that island. Rottler collected large number of plants during this visit, which he donated to the Great Herbarium of King's College London. In 1873, this collection was transferred to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.
His findings were published in Europe in 1803, but went largely overlooked for many years.