Paul Knuth

{{Distinguish|Reinhard Gustav Paul Knuth}}

Paul Erich Otto Wilhelm Knuth (20 November 1854 in Greifswald – 30 October 1900 in Kiel) was a 19th-century German botanist and pollination ecologist.{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1038/061205a0|title = Paul Knuth|journal = Nature|volume = 61|issue = 1574|pages = 205|year = 1899|last1 = B|first1 = I. H.|bibcode = 1899Natur..61..205I|doi-access = free}}

He studied chemistry and natural history at the University of Greifswald and obtained his doctorate degree in 1876. He then took up a career as "high school" (Realschule) teacher, first in Iserlohn in Westphalia and from 1881 in Kiel. Parallel with his teaching duties, he found time to study the flora of Schleswig-Holstein{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |year=1887| title = Flora der Provinz Schleswig-Holstein des Fürstenthums Lübeck, sowie des Gebietes der freien Städte Lübeck und Hamburg | publisher =Lenz | location = Leipzig }} and the North Frisian Islands{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |year=1895| title = Flora der Nordfriesischen Inseln | url=https://archive.org/details/floradernordfrie00knut | location = Kiel }} and meticulous studies of plant-pollinator interactions, which he published in his monumental work Handbuch der Blütenbiologie ([https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/23080 Handbook of Flower Biology]; from 1898 and continued after his death by Otto Appel and Ernst Loew).{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |year=1898| title = Handbuch der Blütenbiologie. I. Einleitung und Litteratur | publisher = Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann | location = Leipzig }}{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |year=1898| title = Handbuch der Blütenbiologie. II. Die bisher in Europa und im arktischen Gebiet gemachten Blütenbiologischen Beobachtungen; 1. Teil: Ranunculaceae bis Compositae | publisher = Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann | location = Leipzig | pages = 698 }}{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |year=1898| title = Handbuch der Blütenbiologie. II. Die bisher in Europa und im arktischen Gebiet gemachten Blütenbiologischen Beobachtungen; 2. Teil: Lobeliaceae bis Gnetaceae | publisher = Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann | location = Leipzig | pages = 705 }}{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |author2=Appel, O. |author3=Loew, E. |year=1904| title = Handbuch der Blütenbiologie. III. Bischer in Aussereuropäischen gebieten gemachten blütenbiologischen beobachtungen; 1. Teil: Cycadaceae bis Cornaceae | publisher = Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann | location = Leipzig | pages = 570 }}{{cite book | last=Knuth | first= P. |author2=Appel, O. |author3=Loew, E. |year=1904| title = Handbuch der Blütenbiologie. III. Bischer in Aussereuropäischen gebieten gemachten blütenbiologischen beobachtungen; 2. Teil: Clethraceae bis Compositae | publisher = Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann | location = Leipzig | pages = 598 }} From 1891 he suffered from illness. He was granted leave of absence to visit the botanic garden at Buitenzorg in Java, where he stayed for five months and did pollination studies. He returned to Kiel via Japan, California and New York.

{{Botanist|Knuth|Knuth, Paul}}