Reinhard Gustav Paul Knuth

Reinhard Gustav Paul Knuth (1874–1957) was a German taxonomist, botanist and pteridologist responsible for "Initia florae venezuelensis" in 1928, and numerous contributions to Adolf Engler's "Das Pflanzenreich" on Geraniaceae, Oxalidaceae, Lecythidaceae, and other families.

As part of his training in plant systematics he visited the herbaria at Kew, Brussels, Geneva, Paris and Utrecht.

While his main interests in botany were systematics and phytogeography, he also ventured into other disciplines and in his final 30 years was working on problems in bacteriology and the growth of Ascomycetes, the source of antibiotics and yeast.

His own extensive herbarium collection of some 26 000 specimens was lost when the Dahlem Botanical Museum was destroyed by bombing and fire on the nights of 1 and 2 March 1943.

[1] In addition to frequent collecting trips in Germany, Knuth travelled to locations such as the Carpathian Mountains and Algeria.