Rudolf Marloth
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- 15 May 1931 Caledon
Caledon, Western Cape
Caledon is a town in the Overberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa, located about east of Cape Town. it had a population of 10,650. It is located in, and the seat of, the Theewaterskloof Local Municipality....
, Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
was a German-born South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n botanist, pharmacist and analytical chemist, best known for his Flora of South Africa which appeared in six superbly illustrated volumes between 1913 and 1932. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Marloth when citing
Author citation (botany)
In botanical nomenclature, author citation refers to citing the person who validly published a botanical name, i.e. who first published the name while fulfilling the formal requirements as specified by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature...
a botanical name
Botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar and/or Group epithets must conform to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants...
.
Early life
Marloth studied pharmacy in Lübben from 1873-1876. after which he worked at various pharmacies in Germany and Switzerland, then formally qualified as a pharmacist at the University of Berlin. In 1883 he was awarded a doctorate for his thesis "The protective mechanisms employed by seeds against harmful agents".He arrived in Cape Town on 30 December 1883 after being urged to do so by a schoolfriend who had already settled there. During his first year there he worked as a pharmacist for the firm of Wentzel and Schleswig. He was enthralled by Cape Town and Table Mountain
Table Mountain
Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa, and is featured in the flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top...
and started immediately on a plant collection, soon going further afield to places like Klein Winterhoek, Du Toitskloof
Du Toits Peak
Du Toits Peak is the highest seaward facing peak in the Cape Fold Belt ranges, i.e. the highest peak in the Western Cape within direct sight of the ocean. Located between Paarl and Worcester in the south-west of South Africa, 70 km to the north-east of the provincial capital of Cape Town...
, Bainskloof and Sneeukop. During this time he started his own business in Cape Town. Acting as a locum in Kimberley
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...
, he made collecting trips from 1885-1886 to the surrounding areas such as Kuruman
Kuruman
Kuruman is a town with 12,701 inhabitants in Northern Cape province of South Africa, famous for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature bringing water from deep underground to the surface in the Kalahari Desert....
in the Northern Cape and to South West Africa
South West Africa
South-West Africa was the name that was used for the modern day Republic of Namibia during the earlier eras when the territory was controlled by the German Empire and later by South Africa....
where he visited Aus, Lüderitz
Lüderitz
Lüderitz is a harbour town in south-west Namibia, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island.- Overview :...
Bay, Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay , is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies...
, Usakos
Usakos
Usakos is a city on the banks of river Khan, 140 kilometres north-east of Swakopmund in the Erongo Region of Namibia. It is located on the B2 , the main road between the Walvis Bay and Johannesburg. The town has 3,000 inhabitants and owns of land...
, Ubib, Karibib, Otjimbingwe
Otjimbingwe
Otjimbingwe is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8000 inhabitants.The Rhenish Mission Society used Otjimbingwe as a central location for their Namibian mission in 1849. Johannes Rath and his family settled in the area on 11 July that year, and the settlement...
and Okahandja
Okahandja
Okahandja is a town of 14,000 inhabitants in Otjozondjupa Region, central Namibia, and the district capital of the Okahandja electoral constituency. It is known as the Garden Town of Namibia. It is located 70km north of Windhoek on the B1 road...
. Many of his specimens were written up under "Plantae Marlothiana" by Engler
Adolf Engler
Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, like Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien , edited with Karl A. E...
and others in Berlin.
In 1888 he accepted a post in the Department of Chemistry at Victoria College (which later became Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in the town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Other nearby universities are the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape....
); shortly after this in 1889 he became Professor and held this position till 1892. Thereafter he lectured at Elsenburg Agricultural School and at the same time acted as consultant and analytical chemist in Cape Town.
Later life
In 1891 he married Marian van Wyk of Clanwilliam.The day after his arrival in Cape Town, he had climbed to the top of Table Mountain
Table Mountain
Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa, and is featured in the flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top...
. Spending much time botanising in the mountains, he came into contact with the mountaineering fraternity and played a role in the founding of the Mountain Club of South Africa
Mountain Club of South Africa
The Mountain Club of South Africa is the largest and oldest mountaineering club in South Africa. It facilitates and engages in mountaineering, climbing of all types, bouldering, hiking, international expeditions, mountain search and rescue, training, conservation of mountain areas, and procurement...
in 1891, acting as chairman from 1901-1906 and receiving their gold badge in 1906. He spent time on the Groot Winterhoek Peak near Tulbagh
Tulbagh
Tulbagh is a town in the Tulbagh valley and is situated in the Witzenberg Local Municipality, with the valley called "Die Land van Waveren" locally. Closest towns are Wolseley, Prince Alfred's Hamlet, Gouda and Ceres in the Boland district of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.The valley has...
, Michells Pass and collected at Stellenbosch, Knysna
Knysna
Knysna is a town with 76,431 inhabitants in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and is part of the Garden Route. It lies 34 degrees south of the equator, and is 72 kilometres east from the town of George on the N2 highway, and 25 kilometres west of Plettenberg Bay on the same road.-History:A...
, Matroosberg and Jonkershoek between 1887 and 1896. During this period he discovered many new species and a new genus in Gesneriaceae which he named Charadrophila Marl.
In 1898 he met Andreas Schimper
Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper
Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper was a botanist and phytogeographer who made major contributions in the fields of histology, ecology and plant geography.-Biography:...
, renowned botanist and phytogeographer, who had arrived aboard the "Valdivia". Together they made collecting trips to the Montagu and Swartberg
Swartberg
The Swartberg mountains make up a mountain range that runs roughly east-west along the northern edge of the semi-arid Little Karoo in the Western Cape province of South Africa...
passes, and then further to Knysna. Schimper died in 1901 before his report was written, so that Marloth was asked to write an account on the phytogeography of the Cape. In those times "the Cape" was interpreted to cover a large part of Southern Africa. In order to write the report, Marloth felt it necessary to make extended trips to the Cederberg
Cederberg
The Cederberg mountains and nature reserve are located near Clanwilliam, approximately 300 km north of Cape Town, South Africa at about . The mountain range is named after the endangered Clanwilliam Cedar , which is a tree endemic to the area. The mountains are noted for dramatic rock...
, Gifberg, Koue Bokkeveld, Swartruggens and on to Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
.
On a visit to South Africa in 1905, Lady Phillips
Florence, Lady Phillips
Dorothea Sarah Florence Alexandra, Lady Phillips was a South African art patroness and promoter of indigenous culture...
commissioned Rudolf Marloth to undertake his Flora of South Africa, a mammoth work published in 6 volumes between 1913 and 1932. In 1917 a Dictionary of the Common Names of Plants was published - this was a supplement to the Flora of South Africa.