LANKESTERIANA 19(3): 201–252. 2019. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/lank.v19i3.39764 RUDOLF SCHLECHTER’S SOUTH-AMERICAN ORCHIDS II. SCHLECHTER’S “NETWORK”: BRAZIL (LA PLATA RIVER BASIN)* CARLOS OSSENBACH1,2,4 & RUDOLF JENNY3 1Orquideario 25 de mayo, Sabanilla de Montes de Oca, San José, Costa Rica 2Jardín Botánico Lankester, Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica 3Jany Renz Herbarium, Swiss Orchid Foundation, Switzerland 4Corresponding author:
[email protected] ABSTRACT. As the second chapter of the series about Rudolf Schlechter’s South-American Orchids, a background of the orchidological work by foreign and Brazilian orchidologists in southern Brazil is outlined, as well as the history of the most important botanical institutions in this region. In order to establish coherent geographical units, the institutions, botanists and collectors mentioned in this chapter are those whose main activity concentrated in the Brazilian part of the La Plata River Basin, or in other words, the Brazilian states including and southwards of Matto Grosso, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo. The most important figures in Schlechter’s Brazilian “network” are presented, with short biographical notes and description of their most important botanical exploits. KEY WORDS: biography, history of botany, Orchidaceae, Brazil Botany in Brazil at the turn of the 20th century. for the Orchidaceae, the Botanical Garden of Rio de The development of a national botanical science in Janeiro became the most important orchid research Brazil began with the foundation of the Rio de Janeiro center in tropical America. The main avenue of the Botanical Garden (JBRJ), created after the Portuguese garden, lined with rows of royal palms that in some Royal Family established itself in Brazil.