Rudolf Schlechter
German botanist (1872–1925)
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Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids.
16 October 1872
Rudolf Schlechter | |
|---|---|
Rudolf Schlechter | |
| Born | Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter 16 October 1872 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 16 November 1925 (aged 53) Berlin, Germany |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botanist |
| Author abbrev. (zoology) | Schltr. |
He went on botanical expeditions in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea, South and Central America and Australia.[1]
His vast herbarium was destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in 1945.
Early life
Rudolf Schlechter was born on 16 October 1872 in Berlin, the third of six children; his father Hugo Schlechter was a lithographer.[2] After finishing school at the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium he started a horticulture education at a gardening market. He later worked at the University of Berlin garden.[3] There he worked as an assistant till the autumn of 1891. His brother was Max Schlechter (1874–1960), was a German trader and collector of natural history specimens.[4]
Career
Schlechter began his career of botanical fieldwork by leaving Europe in 1891 to journey to Africa;[5] he later traveled across Indonesia and Australia. Throughout his career he has focused on expanding his research collection of orchids. He was a leader of expeditions in German Africa,[5] investigating the Caoutchouc industry, but continually collecting plant specimens. He also lived extensively in German New Guinea in the first decade of the new century. Before World War I he settled in Berlin, marrying his wife Alexandra Schlechter and becoming curator of Berlin's botanical garden in Dahlem.[3] He is estimated to have proposed one thousand new species in the family Orchidaceae alone.[6] In his 1901-1902 expedition he discovered 230 orchid species, while on his 1907-1910 expedition he discovered 1,100 additional orchid species.[7]
Works
- Die Orchideen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea, 1914
- Die Orchideen, ihre Beschreibung, Kultur und Züchtung, 1915
- Orchideologiae sino-japonicae prodromus, 1919
- Orchidaceae Powellianae Panamenses, 1922
- Die Orchideenflora der südamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten (written with Rudolf Mansfeld), 1919–1929
- Monographie und Iconographie der Orchideen Europas und des Mittelmeergebietes (written with G. Keller), 1925–1943
- Blütenanalysen neuer Orchideen (published by R. Mansfeld), 1930–1934
Honours
Several genera of plants have been named in his honour,[9] Schlechterella (in the Apocynaceae family),[10]Schlechterina (in the Passifloraceae family),[11] and also Rudolfiella Hoehne, (in the Orchidaceae family).[12]