Biography

German botanist Kurt Krause was based at the Botanical Garden of Berlin for most of his career, joining Adolf Engler there in 1905. He also served as professor of botany and director of the botanical department of the Turkish Higher Agricultural Institute (Yüksek Ziraat Enstitüsü) from 1933-1939. Krause made substantial collections of plants in Turkey (Anatolia) and founded the Herbarium Turcicum at the Agricultural Institute.

In his early career Krause studied the Araceae family, especially the genus Philodendron, with Engler, providing a revision of the latter for Das Pflanzenreich (1913). Around this time he was also interested in the flora of the Caucasus, which area he visited in 1912. He moved on to study the botany of Asia Minor in 1914, particularly exploring the west and central regions of Turkey, and the Cilician Taurus mountains in the south.

Krause returned to Turkey four times between 1925 and 1928, and in 1931 visited the central and northern regions of the country, including the coastal province of Trabzon. He made one more collecting expedition there in 1932 before he was appointed to the Agricultural Institute. He continued to botanise during this period, his chief assistant being Hikmet Birand (1904-1972).

Krause's original 5,600 specimens from Turkey are held in Ankara (ANK). Duplicates at the Berlin Botanical Gardens (B) were destroyed during the Second World War. Some of the specimens are listed in Krause's series "Beiträge zur Flora Kleinasiens" ("Reports on the flora of Asia Minor") and in a catalogue published by Birand in 1952. Krause published some 30 articles on the Turkish flora in total. His Ankaranin Flora or Flora von Ankara (1929, 1937) was the first local flora published in the Turkish language.

A handful of species epithets commemorate Krause, including Verbascum krauseanum Murb. and Aristolochia krausei P.H. Davis.

Sources:
A. Baytop, 2010, "Plant collectors in Anatolia (Turkey)", Phytologia Balcanica, 16(2): 203.