Eduard Hackel

Who was Eduard Hackel?

Eduard Hackel was an Austrian botanist. His father was a veterinary in Haida. He was married and had one son.

Hackel studied at the Polytechnical Institute in Vienna, and became substitute teacher at a high school in St. Pölten in 1869. He became full professor of natural history there upon obtaining his teaching certificate in 1871 and remained in this position until his retirement in 1900. He published his first papers on grasses in 1871 and soon became known as a world expert on the grass family. While he himself undertook only a single collecting trip – to Spain and Portugal, he was charged with working up collections of grasses mainly from Japan, Taiwan, New Guinea, Brazil and Argentina. Apart from systematics, Hackel also contributed to the morphology and histology of members of the grass family.

The genus Hackelochloa is named for him.