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Rudolf Schlechter

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Rudolf Schlechter
Rudolf Schlechter
Born
Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter

(1872-10-16)16 October 1872
Berlin, Germany
Died16 November 1925(1925-11-16) (aged 53)
Schöneberg, Berlin
NationalityGerman
CitizenshipGermany
Scientific career
FieldsBotanist
Author abbrev. (zoology)Schltr.

Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids.

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

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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

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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

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  • 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
The standard author abbreviation Schltr. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[8]

Honours

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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

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  1. ^ "SchlechterFRR".
  2. ^ "The Asclepiadaceous Works of Rudolf F. Schlechter (1872-1925)". JStor. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Schlechter, Mr Friedrich Richard Rudolf (botany)". S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  4. ^ "Max Schlechter". bionomia.net. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Schlechter, Friedrich Richard Rudolf (1872-1925)". JStor. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  6. ^ "Orchids.co.in".
  7. ^ Arditti, Joseph (1992). Fundamentals of Orchid Biology. New York: Wiley. p. 27. ISBN 9780471549062. LCCN 91032733. OCLC 24379868.
  8. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Schltr.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Search for Schlechterella", World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, retrieved 14 October 2018
  11. ^ "Schlechterina Harms | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Rudolfiella Hoehne | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 19 October 2022.

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