Beckler, Hermann   (1828 - 1914)

As well as being a medical man he was also an able botanist and made extensive collections at Moreton Bay, Qld, and around several of the northern coastal rivers of New South Wales.

Collected for Mueller around the Hastings, Macleay, Richmond and Clarence Rivers from September 1859 - mid 1860. His collections include Moreton Bay, Queensland. In 1860-1861 he was medical officer and botanist on the Burke and Wills Victoria Exploring Expedition, collecting in the Scrope Range and other parts of western New South Wales. He then accompanied the Neumayer magnetic survey of north-western Victoria, September-November 1861. His main collections are in MEL, with some in M.

After testifying to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Burke and Wills expedition in 1862, he returned to Germany and spent the rest of his life as a village doctor.

The value of his collections are indicated by the fact that leading botanists of the period named some 13 species after him; these include species of the genera Cleisostoma, Dendrobium, Ficus, Helichrysum, Hibiscus, Ixora and Myrtus.

Source: A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references] ;
Hall, N. (1978) Botanists of the Eucalypts. CSIRO, Melbourne; Pers com. Alison Vaughan Dec 2007.
pers.com. email Debbie Blau, 15.6.2012, 18.7.2012.
Portrait: Pearn (2001) 'A Doctor in the Garden', p. 68 (silhouette).

Medical practitioner. In Aust. 2 Feb. 1856-Jan. 1862.

Collected (including fungi) in SE Qld (Moreton Bay, Mt Mitchell, Warwick) & NE NSW (Clarence R., Hastings, Macleay & Richmond Rivers).

Employed at Melbourne Bot. Gdns July 1859 to July 1860.

Collected in Australian Alps late1859.

Botanist/medical officer on Victoria Exploring Expedition (Burke &Wills), 1860-61, making 475 plant collections in western NSW and south-eastern Qld. Account pub. as H.Beckler, trans. S.Jeffries & M.Kertesz (1993) , A Journey to Cooper's Creek, Melbourne University Press at the Miegunyah Press.

Also collected on a magnetic survey with G.B. Neumayer of the 'northern goldfields' of Vic, the Mallee and to the mouth of the Murray R.in Sept.-Dec. 1861 (esp. Mt Korong). At Shoalhaven 1865.

For detailed account of collections see J.H.Willis, Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic. n.s. 75: 247-268(1962).

Specimens mainly at MEL, also BRI, K, M, MPU, NSW (3), PERTH.

Commemorated in Acacia, Agaricus, Aster, Berberidopsis, Cleisostoma, Dendrobium, Eriostemon, Ficus, Helichrysum, Hibiscus, Ixora, Myrtus and others.

Source: George, A.S. (2009) Australian Botanist's Companion, Four Gables Press, WA. [consult for source references]

Collecting localities for 'Beckler, H.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 3,107 specimens