German pharmacist and traveller. Lechler studied pharmacy at Reutlingen before working in various assistant positions in Germany and Austria. He set up his own pharmacy in Stuttgart in 1839, where he remained for ten years. In 1850 he began his overseas adventures, setting off for Chile to inspect land for potential settlement on behalf of the Stuttgart Society for Emigration and Colonisation. His brief was to explore the area along the river Bueno, which he did, afterwards settling at Arique in the province of Valdivia and carrying out botanical explorations in this region and further afield. Many of the specimens he collected were intended for sale in Europe. His itinerary included the East Falkland Islands (Port Stanley, Mount Williams) in 1850, followed by the Cordillera de Ranco in eastern Valdivia around 1852, and Chiloé and the Straits of Magellan later that year.

On his journey south Lechler was accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel B.E. Philippi (1811-1852), brother of the naturalist R.A. Philippi (1808-1904). Philippi had been sent to take charge of the troubled Chilean colony at Punta Arenas; a task that cost him his life. Lechler continued to travel, his next recorded collections dating from 1854 in Peru. He returned to Europe around this time, also, where he married Sophie von Steudel, daughter of the German botanist E.G. von Steudel (1783-1856) and was awarded a doctorate by the University of Tübingen. Crossing the Atlantic once more, Lechler planned to live in Peru, having accepted a position as a physician at Arequiba. However, he was taken ill with yellow fever while still aboard ship near Ecuador. He died in 1856 and was buried at sea. The genus Lechleria Phil. (syn. Huanaca Cav.) was named after him.

Sources:
M. Acosta-Solís, 1968, Naturalistas y viajeros científicos del Ecuador, 30-31
E.J. Godley, 1970, "Botany of the Southern Zone - Exploration, 1847-1891", Tuatara, 18(2): 68-70
G. Sayre, 1975, "Cryptogamae Exsiccatae: an annotated bibliography of exsiccatae of algae, lichens, hepaticae, and musci. V. Unpublished Exsiccatae: I. Collectors", Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, 19(3): 356.