Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze

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Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze, 1867

Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (born June 23, 1843 in Leipzig , † January 27, 1907 in San Remo ) was a German botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Kuntze ", but the abbreviation " O.Kuntze " is also in use.

Live and act

Otto Kuntze completed both a secondary school and an economic school and learned the trade of a druggist . Already in his youth he was interested in botany and collected a variety of plants in the Leipzig area. In 1867 he published the "Taschen-Flora von Leipzig", in which these plants were described. At that time he had already moved to Berlin and worked as an employee. Between 1863 and 1866 he worked as a businessman in Berlin and traveled through Central Europe and Italy . He spent his free time collecting plants in the Berlin area. He was mostly accompanied on his excursions by the botanists Alexander Braun and Paul Ascherson . In 1867 he published a paper on the “Reform of German Blackberries”, in which he described the genus Rubus . In 1868 he lived in Leipzig again and founded a factory for the production of essential oils and essences and was so successful that he was able to retire after only five years. He now devoted himself entirely to botany and traveled around the world from 1874 to 1876. He visited the West Indies in the Caribbean, South America , 14 US states, Japan , China , Southeast Asia and India . On this trip he collected about 7,700 plants and also put together an ethnological collection that belonged to the Ethnological Museum in Leipzig . He wrote down his research on this trip in the book "Um die Erde" in 1881.

In 1878 he obtained his doctorate, studying at the universities in Berlin, Leipzig and Freiburg im Breisgau. His dissertation was published as a "monograph of the genus Cinchona L." In the following year he wrote theories on the systematics of botany, which were viewed critically by his colleagues.

From 1884 to 1890 he sorted and described the plants he had collected so far both in Berlin and in Kew Gardens near London. In the meantime, Kuntze visited the Russian Middle East in 1886 and from 1887 to 1888 he stayed on the Canary Islands . From all his collected knowledge he published a two-volume work called "Revisio generum plantarum" in 1891. In this work he restructured almost the entire botany, which was hotly controversial. Undeterred, he published a third volume of this work with the findings and newly collected plants from South America from the years 1891 and 1893. Although some of his points of criticism of the previous system were discussed at several botanical congresses, the majority of his system was strongly criticized and rejected.

In 1894 he made a trip to South Africa and the German colonies, from the winter of 1895 he lived in San Remo in Italy. In 1904 he traveled the world a second and last time, visiting Australia , New Zealand , Ceylon , Samoa , Hawaii and the USA . In 1905 he took part in the Second International Congress of Botany in Vienna, where he only questioned the authority of the congress with regard to the establishment of nomenclature rules. As a result, the natural scientist was denied his competence. His health deteriorated after Congress until he finally died in San Remo in 1907.

Honors

The fungus genus Kuntzeomyces Henn is named after him . ex Sacc. & P.Syd.

Fonts (selection)

  • Revisio generum plantarum: vascularium omnium atque cellularium multarum secundum leges nomenclaturae internationales cum enumeratione plantarum exoticarum in itinere mundi collectarum. 3 volumes. Leipzig 1891–1898 ( online ).
  • Phytogeogenesis. The pre-world development of the earth's crust and plants in basic features . Paul Frohberg, Leipzig 1884 (online) .

literature

  • John Hendley Barnhart: Otto Kuntze. In: Bulletin of the Charleston Museum. Volume 9. 1913, pp. 65-68.
  • WB Hemsley: Dr. Otto Kuntze. In: Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information. 1907, pp. 100-101.
  • Frans A. Stafleu: Kuntze, Carl Ernst Otto. In: Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Volume 15. 1978, pp. 268-269.
  • Ignatio Urban: II. Notae biographicae peregrinatorum Indiae occidentalis botanicorum. Bornträger Brothers, Leipzig 1902, pp. 70–71.
  • Ludwig Wittmack: Otto Kuntze's travels and his views on the migration of the bananas. In: Garden flora . Volume 55, 1906, pp. 232-234.
  • Thomas A. Zanoni: Otto Kuntze, botanist. I. Biography, Bibliography and Travels . In: Brittonia . Volume 32, Number 4, pp. 551-571 ( DOI: 10.2307 / 2806169 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kuntze, Carl Ernst Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1907
Place of death San Remo