Reinhold Conrad Muschler

Who is Reinhold Conrad Muschler?

Reinhold Conrad Muschler aka Reno Muschler, was a German botanist, explorer and writer, who worked on the taxonomy of North African flora. He travelled extensively with Ernest Friedrich Gilg and carried out a revision of the flora of Patagonia. His parents were both well-known singers at the Court Opera in Berlin.

After finishing high school in Berlin, he travelled widely in Europe and Africa, spending the winters of 1902-1906 in Egypt after he was found to be suffering from TB. It was during these rest-cures that he met Georg Schweinfurth and Paul Ascherson, who encouraged him to become involved in the botany of Egypt. Consequently he studied under Adolf Engler, receiving his doctorate on African Senecio species in 1908, and becoming an assistant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Dahlem-Berlin. Between 1906 and 1914 he authored and co-authored some 65 botanical papers, describing 10 new genera, 380 new species and about 50 new combinations.

Irregularities in the Manual Flora of Egypt led to Schweinfurth and Engler accusing him of fraud and the matter being taken to court. The case against Muschler was dismissed on the grounds of his being mentally disturbed at the time.