Rudolf Schlechter

Rudolf Schlechter was born on 16 October 1872 in Berlin, the third of six children; his father Hugo Schlechter was a lithographer. 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. 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. ==Career==

Schlechter began his career of botanical fieldwork by leaving Europe in 1891 to journey to Africa; 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, In his 1901-1902 expedition he discovered 230 orchid species, while on his 1907-1910 expedition he discovered 1,100 additional orchid species. ==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, Schlechterella (in the Apocynaceae family),Schlechterina (in the Passifloraceae family), and also Rudolfiella , (in the Orchidaceae family). ==References==