Käthe Hoffmann facts for kids

Käthe Hoffmann (born in 1883) was a German botanist. A botanist is a scientist who studies plants. She discovered and described many new plant species. Most of her work focused on plants from New Guinea and South East Asia. One important plant she described is called Annesijoa novoguineensis.

She was a professor at a university in Breslau, which was then in the German Empire. Today, this city is called Wroclaw and is in Poland. Käthe Hoffmann made a very important contribution to the study of plants. She is known for describing a large number of plant species. In one study, it was found that she had helped write or fully written about 354 land plant species. This was the sixth-highest number of plants described by any female scientist. As of May 2020, the Plants of the World Online website lists 439 accepted plant groups (genera) and species that include Käthe Hoffmann as an authority.

Some people thought she died in 1931. However, this is not correct. Käthe Hoffmann published two scientific papers in 1942. One of these papers was an obituary, which is a notice about someone's death, for another botanist named Ferdinand Albin Pax. This shows she was still alive and working in 1942.

Käthe Hoffmann and Käthe Rosenthal

There was another female botanist named Käthe Rosenthal. Her name is also linked to the University of Breslau in the early 1900s. Her name appeared with Ferdinand Pax and Käthe Hoffmann in a large plant book series. This series was called Das Pflanzenreich and was written by Adolf Engler.

Pax and Hoffmann were listed as authors for three sections about the Euphorbiaceae plant family. Rosenthal was listed as the author of a section on the Daphniphyllaceae family. Before this, in 1916, Käthe Rosenthal had published her PhD thesis. A thesis is a long research paper written for a university degree. Her thesis was titled "Monograph of the genus Daphniphyllum".

The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) uses "K.Rosenth." as Rosenthal's author abbreviation. It also states her birth year as 1893. This means she was 10 years younger than Käthe Hoffmann. In her thesis, Rosenthal wrote a short life story (called a Lebenslauf in German). In it, she said she was the daughter of Rabbi Ferdinand Rosenthal and his wife, Amalie. She also thanked Frl. Käthe Hoffmann for "valuable advice in my work." This suggests they were two different people.

However, some sources believe that Käthe Hoffmann and Käthe Rosenthal were the same person. For example, the National Library of France lists Käthe Hoffmann's birth year as 1893. It also states that "Käthe Rosenthal" is "another form of name" for her. Sometimes, Käthe Hoffmann is even listed as the author of the Daphniphyllum book instead of Käthe Rosenthal.

Author Abbreviation

See also

In Spanish: Käthe Hoffmann para niños