Käthe Hoffmann (born 1883) was a German botanist who described many plant species in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and

South East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

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. , ''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

'' 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 Ferdinand Albin Pax (26 July 1858 – 1 March 1942) was a German botanist specializing in spermatophytes. A collaborator of Adolf Engler, he wrote several monographs and described several species of plants and animals from Silesia and the Carpat ...

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 Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

'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 The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

'' (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 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" (""). 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 "" ("another form of name"). Käthe Hoffmann may also be given as the author of the ''Daphniphyllum'' monograph instead of Käthe Rosenthal.

Selected publications

''Das Pflanzenreich''

Between 1911 and 1924, Ferdinand Pax and Käthe Hoffmann contributed almost all the sections on the family

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...

to Engler's monumental work, ''Das Pflanzenreich'' (''The Plant Kingdom''). (The first two sections on the family, published in 1910, were by Pax alone; one section published in 1915 has a different author.) Up to 1914, Hoffmann's name appeared on the title page as "" ('with the participation of'). From 1919 onwards, she was credited as the second author.All the parts of the first edition of ''Das Pflanzenreich'' are listed at Information on each part can be found via the links. *F. Pax with the participation of Käthe Hoffmann (1911). "IV. 147. III Euphorbiaceae–Cluytieae". Heft (issue) 47. *F. Pax with the participation of Käthe Hoffmann (1912). "IV. 147. IV Euphorbiaceae-Gelonieae". Heft 52. *F. Pax with the participation of Käthe Hoffmann (1912). "IV. 147. V Euphorbiaceae-Hippomaneae". Heft 52. *F. Pax with the participation of Käthe Hoffmann (1912). "IV. 147. VI Euphorbiaceae-Acalypheae-Chrozophorinae". Heft 57. *F. Pax with the participation of Käthe Hoffmann (1914). "IV. 147. VII Euphorbiaceaee-Acalypheae-Mercurialinae". Heft 63. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1919). "IV. 147. IX Euphorbiaceae-Acalypheae-Plukenetiinae". Heft 68. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1919). "IV. 147. X Euphorbiaceae-Acalypheae-Epiprininae". Heft 68. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1919). "IV. 147. XI Euphorbiaceae-Acalypheae-Ricininae". Heft 68. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1919). "IV. 147. XII Euphorbiaceae-Dalechampieae". Heft 68. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1919). "IV. 147. XIII Euphorbiaceae-Pereae". Heft 68. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1919). "IV. 147. XIV Euphorbiaceae-Aditamentum IV". Heft 68. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1922). "IV. 147. XV Euphorbiaceae-Phyllanthoideae-Phyllantheae". Heft 81. *F. Pax & Käthe Hoffman (1924). "IV. 147. XVI Euphorbiaceae-Crotonoideae-Acalypheae-Acalyphinae". Heft 85.

Author abbreviation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffmann, Kathe Botanists with author abbreviations 20th-century German botanists German taxonomists Women taxonomists 1883 births Women botanists 20th-century German women scientists Year of death missing