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Rudolf Schlechter
View on WikipediaFriedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids.
Key Information
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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- 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
[edit]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]
References
[edit]- ^ "SchlechterFRR".
- ^ "The Asclepiadaceous Works of Rudolf F. Schlechter (1872-1925)". JStor. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ a b "Schlechter, Mr Friedrich Richard Rudolf (botany)". S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Max Schlechter". bionomia.net. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
- ^ a b "Schlechter, Friedrich Richard Rudolf (1872-1925)". JStor. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Orchids.co.in".
- ^ Arditti, Joseph (1992). Fundamentals of Orchid Biology. New York: Wiley. p. 27. ISBN 9780471549062. LCCN 91032733. OCLC 24379868.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Schltr.
- ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen [Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. S2CID 246307410. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
- ^ "Search for Schlechterella", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 14 October 2018
- ^ "Schlechterina Harms | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
- ^ "Rudolfiella Hoehne | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
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