Florian Porcius

Florian Porcius (–) was an Austro-Hungarian ethnic Romanian botanist and administrator.

Born in Rodna, a village in Transylvania's Bistrița-Năsăud County, he came from a poor peasant family, and his parents were Precup Șteopan and his wife Ioana. He was raised by his grandfather, the priest Gherasim Porcu (Latinized as Porcius), whose name he took by adoption. In 1824, he entered the primary school in Rodna, for miners' sons, where he began to pick up the German and Hungarian languages. From 1827 to 1831, he attended the German-language military normal school in Năsăud, followed by the high schools in Blaj and Cluj from 1833 to 1836.

In 1836, Porcius was named a schoolteacher in his native village. In 1844, Porcius he a scholarship from the Military Frontier fund allowing him to study at the Vienna pedagogical institute for two years;

Although Porcius was involved in botany as a passionate amateur, his work was acknowledged by the scientific authorities of the empire. For over sixty years, he explored the Rodna Mountains, methodically studying their flora and discovering several endemic species, of which two bear his name. These are Centaurea carpatica, Lychnis nivalis, Heracleum carpaticum, Pulmonaria dacica, Festuca porcii and Saussurea porcii. He maintained close contact with leading botanists of Central Europe as well as from the Romanian Old Kingdom. He collaborated with Dimitrie Brândză on Flora Dobrogei, and was tasked with specifying the nomenclature and synonyms, as well as compiling cross-references. this was due to his scientific merits as well as his status as the most important Romanian botanist in Transylvania during the Austro-Hungarian period. He died in Rodna.