Biography

Brazilian taxonomist, director of the São Paulo Institute of Botany from 1942-1959. Hoehne began the Flora Brasilica series and played a major role in the botanical survey work of the Rondon Commission. Born in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Frederico Hoehne was schooled at home by his parents, who were originally from Germany and ran a farm and orchid hothouse. He also studied at the Colégio Americano, continuing his education in botany with Emilio Jovet and João Barbosa Rodrigues. In 1907 he was appointed jardineiro-chefe (head gardener) at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro and was soon swept into the world of botanical fieldwork. He went on the first of many expeditions in 1908-1909, serving as a botanist with the government's Rondon Commission as it surveyed the lands between Mato Grosso and Amazonas. He returned on the telegraphic lines expedition (Commissão de Linhas Telegraphicas Estrategicas de Matto Grosso ao Amazonas) in 1910 and in 1913-1914 he was back in the field as botanist for the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition. Following on from these expeditions he made many contributions to the commission reports (published between 1910 and 1923), detailing botanical findings. From 1918 Hoehne was based at the Insituto de Botánica in São Paulo, where he remained until his death. He became director of the institute in 1942.

Harking back to his childhood memories of his parents' orchid house, Hoehne published many texts on the epiphytes, for example Iconografia de Orchidaceas do Brasil (1949). He also wrote copiously on the local flora of São Paulo, completing more than 50 articles under the series "Essencias lenhosas indígena e exóticas para a silvicultura nacional. O Estado de S. Paulo", begun in 1945. Hoehne's major work, Flora Brasilica, was begun in 1940 and was carried on after his death under the editorship of Acides Ribeiro Teixera. Twelve fascicles were issued up to 1968. He also published works on aquatic plants (1948), toxic and medicinal plants (1939) and cinchona (1919) among other subjects. The São Paulo journal Hoehnea (1971-) is named after him, as are the genera Hoehnea Epling, Hoehnella A. Ruschi and Hoehnephytum A.L. Cabrera.

Sources:
Anon., 1979, "HI-IAPT Portraits of Botanists No. 92. Frederico Carlos Hoehne", Taxon, 28(1/3): 216
G.J.F. Pabst, 1959, Die Orchidee, 10(3): 90-92
F.A. Stafleu, 1959, Taxon, 8(6): 209
A.R. Teixera, 1962, Arquivos de Botanica do Estado de São Paulo, 3(5): 221-222.