Swiss plant pathologist. Stahel took his doctorate (1911) at Basel, where he worked in the Botanical Institute until moving to Paramaribo, Suriname. Here he served at the Agricultural Experiment Station for 34 years, ultimately as director, carrying out important and pioneering work on many fungal diseases of economic plants. In 1915 he identified the fungus (Marasmius perniciosus Stahel) responsible for witch’s broom disease on cocoa, for example, and devoted nearly two decades to understanding coffee wilt. He visited Tafelberg in central Suriname in 1926 and was the first to recognise its botanical significance. Bassett Maguire of the New York Botanical Garden subsequently explored the isolated mountain in 1944. Stahel’s wife was Lieutenant Lisa Stahel, commanding officer in Paramaribo for the Netherlands West Indian Woman’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War Two.

Sources:
Anon., 1945, Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, 46(542): 44
E.P. Camargo, 1999, "Phytomonas and other Trypanosomatid Parasites of Plants and Fruit", Advances in Parasitology, 42: 78-79
B. Maguire, 1948, "Plant Explorations in Guiana in 1944, Chiefly to the Tafelberg and the Kaieteur Plateau-I", Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 75(1): 56.