Rudolf Schlechter

author

Rudolf Schlechter

1872–1925

A tireless German botanist and orchid expert, he traveled widely to collect and classify plants from Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Australia. His work helped shape the study of orchids, even though much of his research was later lost in wartime destruction.

1 Audiobook

Westafrikanische Kautschuk-Expedition

Westafrikanische Kautschuk-Expedition

by Rudolf Schlechter, Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft. Kolonial-Wirtschaftliches Komitee

About the author

Born in Berlin on October 16, 1872, Rudolf Schlechter became one of Germany’s best-known botanists and a leading specialist in orchids. He worked at the Botanical Museum in Berlin and earned lasting recognition in botanical literature under the author abbreviation "Schltr."

Schlechter carried out major collecting journeys across Africa, Central and South America, Indonesia, Australia, and New Guinea. He described a huge number of plant species, especially orchids, and built a reputation for careful, wide-ranging taxonomic work that made him an important figure in early twentieth-century botany.

He died in Berlin on November 15, 1925. A tragic part of his legacy is that much of his written work and herbarium material in Berlin was later destroyed during World War II, making his surviving publications all the more valuable to later botanists.