Käthe Hoffmann facts for kids

Käthe Hoffmann (born 1883) was a German botanist who described many plant species in New Guinea and South East Asia including Annesijoa novoguineensis. She was a professor at Breslau, German Empire, (now Wroclaw, Poland) and made a significant contribution to botany. In one study, she was found to have co-authored or authored 354 land plant species, the sixth-highest number authored by any female scientist. As of May 2020^[update], Plants of the World Online lists 439 accepted genera and species which include Käthe Hoffmann in the authority, in some capacity.

While some sources give her year of death as 1931, this is impossible as she was the author of two papers published in Revista Sudamericana de Botánica in 1942, one of them being an obituary of Ferdinand Albin Pax.

Relationship to Käthe Rosenthal

Another female botanist's name, Käthe Rosenthal, is associated with the University of Breslau in the early 20th century. Her name appears alongside those of Ferdinand Pax and Käthe Hoffmann in issue 68 of Adolf Engler's multivolume work Das Pflanzenreich. Pax and Hoffmann are listed as the authors of three sections on parts of the family Euphorbiaceae. Rosenthal is listed as the author of a section on the family Daphniphyllaceae. Earlier, in 1916, a PhD thesis with the author Käthe Rosenthal had been published under the title "Monographie der Gattung Daphniphyllum" ("Monograph of the genus Daphniphyllum"). The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) gives Rosenthal's author abbreviation as "K.Rosenth." with the year of birth 1893, i.e. 10 years after Hoffmann. Rosenthal's dissertation on Daphniphyllum contains a Lebenslauf or resumé in which she identifies herself as the daughter of Rabbi Ferdinand Rosenthal, PhD, and his wife, Amalie, née Kaufmann. She also thanks, among others, Frl. Käthe Hoffmann "for valuable advice in my work" ("für wertvolle Ratschläge bei meiner Arbeit").

Some sources treat the two as the same person. Thus the Bibliothèque nationale de France gives Käthe Hoffmann's year of birth as 1893, and states that "Käthe Rosenthal" is "autre forme du nom" ("another form of name"). Käthe Hoffmann may also be given as the author of the Daphniphyllum monograph instead of Käthe Rosenthal.

Author abbreviation

See also

In Spanish: Käthe Hoffmann para niños