Hornschuch was born in
Rodach,
Bavaria. In 1808 he started his career as an apprentice at a
pharmacy in
Hildburghausen. In 1813 he moved to
Regensburg as an assistant to botanist
David Heinrich Hoppe (1760–1846), and afterwards worked as an assistant to
Heinrich Christian Funck (1771–1839) in
Gefrees, where he performed research of
mosses (
Bryopsida) native to the
Fichtel Mountains. In 1816 he accompanied Hoppe on a botanical expedition to the
Adriatic coast, then returned to
Coburg to arrange his diaries, and in April 1817 continued his research with Hoppe in
Tyrol and
Carinthia. Later he worked as a "botanical demonstrator" at the
University of Greifswald, and for a period of time studied with
Carl Adolph Agardh (1785–1859) from the
University of Lund. Between 1817 and 1818 he and Hoppe co-edited two
exsiccata-like series, namely
Plantae cryptogamae selectae and
Plantae phanerogamicae, gramineae et cryptogamiceae selectae, quas in locis natalibus collegerunt et exsiccaverunt D. H. Hoppe et Fr. Hornschuch. In 1820 he was appointed associate professor of
natural history and
botany, and director of the
botanical gardens at the
University of Greifswald. In 1827, he attained the title of "full professor". In 1821, botanist
Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck named a genus of flowering plants (in family
Annonaceae) from Brazil as
Hornschuchia. == Publications ==