David de Gorter (1717–1783) was a Dutch physician and botanist known for his contributions to the systematic classification of flora in the Netherlands and Russia. He was the son of Johannes de Gorter, a prominent physician and professor under whom David studied at the University of Harderwijk.
In 1754, de Gorter was appointed as the personal physician to Empress Elizabeth of Russia and served as a counselor at the Russian court in Saint Petersburg. During his tenure in Russia, he continued his botanical research and was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1758.
De Gorter was a contemporary and correspondent of Carl Linnaeus. He is recognized for applying Linnaean taxonomy to regional botanical studies. His primary works include Flora Gelro-Zutphanica (1745), which cataloged plants in the Gelderland region, and Flora Belgica (1767). He also published Flora VII Provinciarum Belgii Foederati (1781), a comprehensive guide to the plants of the seven united provinces of the Netherlands.
The botanical genus Gorteria, within the family Asteraceae, was named by Linnaeus in honor of David de Gorter and his father. De Gorter returned to the Netherlands in the 1760s, where he spent his later years continuing his scientific publications until his death in 1783.
