Pál Kitaibel

Who was Pál Kitaibel?

Pál Kitaibel was a Hungarian botanist and chemist.

He was born at Mattersburg and studied botany and chemistry at the undersity of Buda. He became professor taught these subjects at Pest in 1794. As well as studying the flora and hydrography of Hungary, in 1789 he discovered the element tellurium, but later he gave credit to fellow Hungarian Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein who had discovered it in 1782.

Together with Franz de Paula Adam von Waldstein, he wrote Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae.

He died in 1817 at Pest.

The genus Kitaibelia of mallows was named after him by Carl Ludwig von Willdenow.

Species named after him:

⁕Ablepharus kitaibelii

⁕Cardamine kitaibelii

⁕Kitaibela vitifolia

⁕Knautia kitaibelii

⁕Aquilegia kitaibelii