Johannes Reinke

Who was Johannes Reinke?

Johannes Reinke was a German botanist and philosopher who was a native of Ziethen, Lauenburg. He is remembered for his research of benthic marine algae.

Introduced to botany by his father, Johannes discovered a rare aquatic plant, the lake quillwort in a herbarium, which he built with his father at the age of ten.

He initially studied theology at Rostock, but his focus later changed to botany. In 1879 he became a professor of botany at the University of Göttingen, where he established the institute of plant physiology. From 1885 until 1921, he was a professor at the University of Kiel. Reinke was a co-founder of the Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft.

Reinke had a keen interest in the systematics, developmental cycles, cytology and physiology of brown algae. From 1888 to 1892 he published a number of articles on marine algae from the North and Baltic Seas. From the Baltic Sea, he described several new genera of algae. He published works on the algal families Tilopteridaceae and Sphacelariaceae. Also, he postulated that the encrusting algae genus called Aglaozonia was a stage in the life history of Cutleria. The genus Reinkella is named in his honor.