Koch, Maxwell (Max)   (1854 - 1925)

Born in Berlin, Germany, on 17 July 1854, died in Pemberton, Western Australia, on 1 April 1925.

Koch was apprenticed to a merchant's office, but, not liking the work, joined the crew of a Glasgow-based sailing ship at Bremerhaven. Koch disembarked at Port Augusta, South Australia in April 1878, taking work at a wheat farm.

He then worked for many years (c. 1888-1901) on a sheep station at Mount Lyndhurst, South Australia.

Koch visited Germany around 1902-1903, then returned to Australia, and in 1904 moved to the extreme south-west of Western Australia, where he spent the next 17 years working in the timber industry.

By that time he had a large family, and he supplemented his income by selling plant specimens, and, in his later years, seed.

During his lifetime, Koch was highly regarded by botanists, who considered him to be an outstanding botanical collector. In total his collections amount to about 820 species in South Australia and 2880 in Western Australia.

Ten sets of the Mount Lyndhurst specimens were sent to Maiden at NSW who used them as exchange with other herbaria. Seven sets from Mount Lyndhurst and 100 Western Australian plants were sent to Adelaide. About 200-300 sheets of Western Australian collections were bought by MEL in about 1896.

Audas in 1929 credited him with discovering nine new species in South Australia, and 33 species plus 14 varieties from Western Australia.

His main collections are at AD, MEL and NSW, with smaller sets at many herbaria including A, B, BP, BREM, BRI, CANB, DBN, E, G, GH, HBG, HO, K, L, M, MIN, MO, P, PERTH and VT.

Eucalyptus kochii was named in his honour, as were species of several other genera, including Acacia, Aizoon, Scirpus, Thryptomene and Zygophyllum.

Source; Extracted from: A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS.
Short, P. S. (1990). "Politics and the purchase of private herbaria by the National Herbarium of Victoria".
Audas, J. W. (1929) "The botanical activities of Max Koch". Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 15: 83-86.
in Short, P. S. (ed.). History of systematic botany in Australia. ASBS. p.6.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Koch
Portrait Photo: Google Images web, 15/9/2021

Collecting localities for 'Koch, M.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 7,249 specimens