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August Gottlieb Hans Rudatis

† 13.5.1934 South Africa
 * 16.11.1875 Stieglitz, Berlin, Germany

August Gottlieb Hans Rudatis was trained in horticulture at a nursery in Stieglitz, Berlin, 1892 until 1895. He worked for a year on the estate of Prince Fürstenberg, near Baden, and in the Zürich Botanical Garden under SCHINZ from 1896 until 1898 before accepting a post with the new botanical garden at Dahlem, where he was in charge of the Alpine garden. In 1900 he accepted a three year contract with a company in Cameroon as botanist and collector, and took part in expeditions into the interior. During his last year he was concerned with the laying out of a rubber and cocoa plantation on the Cross River. Early in 1904 he came to Natal and occupied a small farm at Umgai, near Dumisa, then in Alexandra Country, now in Port Shepstone District. In 1907 he returned to Germany to marry the daughter of a wealthy Berlin banker who there-upon disinherited her, and they then settled in Natal. He did not only make extensive collections of plants, but was intensely interested in birds and also collected insects, particularly Coleoptera. His collections came mainly from his farm, and from localities such as Fairfield, Kenterton, Friedenau and Campbelltown, all in the Dumisa area. He also did some collecting at Warner Beach. His farming venture was not a success, nor were his efforts to establish a nursery for the sale of indigenous plants and Cacti. In 1921 he received a serious head injury during an attempted robbery, from which he did not completely recover. In 1922 he moved to the Middelburg District, Transvaal, and then went farming near Brakpan, where he was assisted by his son. He does not appear to have collected in the Transvaal. He made little contact with other South African botanists but maintained a fairly regular correspondence with THODE and visited Medley Wood from time to time. He disposed of his Natal plants to Berlin (SCHLECHTER 1908), Zürich, Kew (Anonymus 1915), Edinburgh, Pretoria (evidently received from Berlin with labels written by WILMS) and to Medley Wood. His personal herbarium, notes etc. were purchased by Stellenbosch when he moved to the Transvaal. BAYER (1971) records that he was an ardent conservationist and when ploughing a field he would lift his plough to avoid destroying a mouse nest or some pretty flower. (GUNN & CODD 1981). Botanical specimens in STE (Stellenbosch), PRE (Pretoria), NH (Durban), K (Kew), B (Berlin), E (Edinburgh) , Z (Zürich), (GUNN & CODD 1981) Rudatis is commemorated in 21 plant taxa (Index Kewensis).