Organisation(s)
WRSL (main), B, BM, BO, FR, H, K, L, LE, S, US
Countries
Australasia: Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, AustraliaMalesian region: IndonesiaNorth American region: United States
Associate(s)
Kärnbach, Ludwig (1864-1896) (co-collector)
Kersting, Otto (1863-)
Klink, H. (fl. 1899-1902) (co-collector, leader)
Rodatz, H. (fl. 1899-1900) (co-collector)
Tappenbeck, E. (fl. 1896-1898) (co-collector)
Biography
German botanist and explorer who participated in expeditions to New Guinea during which he gathered rich botanical collections.
Lauterbach, a man of independent means, was Director of the German New Guinea Company at the turn of the century and owned an estate at Breslau. Lauterbach was born in Breslau and studied sciences (especially botany) and agriculture there and in Heidelberg, receiving his doctorate at the latter university in 1888. In 1889 he embarked on a round-the-world voyage, calling at ports in America, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia (Victoria and New South Wales), Thursday Island and Java. He spent ten days at Buitenzorg in Java and climbed Mount Ardjoeno before sailing for Kaiser-Wilhelmsland in New Guinea in March 1890. His party visited the Bismarck Archipelago in June that year, returning then to north-east New Guinea. In October 1890, while still in New Guinea, Lauterbach joined an expedition to the Gogol Valley led by Ludwig Kärnbach. The Gogol River proved impossible to explore by boat, however, and the expedition travelled into the interior of the country by land. Due to illness, the party had returned to the coast by early December and Lauterbach took passage back to Germany in January 1891.
Lauterbach married in 1892 and over the next few years published accounts of his adventures. In 1895 he acquired an estate at Stabelwitz, but was not long there before setting sail once more, being in New Guinea again in 1896 with the Kaiser-Wilhelmsland Expedition, accompanied by E. Tappenbeck and O. Kersting. Lauterbach explored the Oertzen mountains (Taju Mana) with Kersting in May that year, before all three men trekked west of Erima Station in Astrolabe Bay towards the Ramu River by way of the Nuru Basin on the Elizabeth River. Lauterbach ascended Mount Siguan on this journey, and another summit in the Bismarck Mountains. They spent a week at New Britain in October and stopped at Singapore on their way back to Europe, where they landed at Genoa.
In 1899 Lauterbach was in the Moluccas and New Guinea again on the third Ramu Expedition (with Rodatz and Klink). He stayed in the Bismarck Mountains again on this trip and also on the Schumann River, discovering gold deposits. He returned to Germany in early 1900. It was during this sojourn that Lauterbach was given directorship of the New Guinea Company. He seems to have travelled there again in 1902.
Some of Lauterbach's collections were determined by V.F. Brotherus and P. Hennings, while Lauterbach co-authored Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebieten in der Südsee (Flora of the German territories in the South Seas) with Karl Schumann. He also contributed to the "Beiträge zur Flora von Papuasien" ("Reports on the Flora of Papua") in Engler's Botanische Jahrb࿌her (1912) and authored several other papers on the flora of New Guinea. The plant genus Lauterbachia Perk. is named in his honour along with several species.
Sources:
Anon., 1938, Chronica Botanica, 4: 76-78
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, 1959, "Cyclopaedia of Collectors" in Flora Malesiana ser. 1, online edition:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/l/LauterbachCAG.htm, accessed 26 August 2010.
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 360; Chaudhri, M.N., Vegter, H.I. & de Bary, H.A., Index Herb. Coll. I-L (1972): 355, 368, 416; Jackson, B.D., Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew (1901): 39; Murray, G.R.M., Hist. Coll. Nat. Hist. Dep. Brit. Mus. (1904): 161; Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. T-Z (1988): 993;
