Pál Kitaibel

Pál Kitaibel (1757–1817) was a Hungarian botanist and chemist.

He was born at Mattersburg and studied botany and chemisty 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 (1740–1825) who had discovered it in 1782.

Together with Franz de Paula Adam von Waldstein (1759–1823), he wrote "Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae" ("descriptions and pictures of the rare plants of Hungary"; M. A. Schmidt, Vienna, three volumes, 1802–1812).

He died in 1817 at Budapest.

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

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