Karl Kalchbrenner

* Petőfalva/Pöttelsdorf, 5 May 1807 – † Szepesolaszi, 5 June 1886 / Lutheran pastor, mycologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1872) ; ; He began his school studies in Ágfalva, continued at the gymnasium in Győr, then at the lyceum in Sopron, and at the Piarist gymnasium in Pest. In 1823–1826 he was a student at the ev. lyceum in Bratislava, and finally graduated from the ev. lyceum in Selmecbánya. After studying theology at the theological academy in Sopron and then at the university in Halle, he became a priest. For a while he was a librarian in Halle, then a chaplain in Pest, and from 1832 to 1881 he served in Szepesolaszi as a pastor, then dean (1858), and archdean (1870). He began botanizing in 1847, and his interest soon turned to fungi. He went from being an autodidact to an internationally recognized mycologist. He described 13 new genera and 400 new species of fungi. He published more than 70 scientific publications. He supplemented his work Icones selectae Hymenomycetum Hungariae (1873–1877) by numerous illustrations and detailed descriptions of the fungi of Upper Hungary. After 1875, he only dealt with the processing and systematization of fungal material sent to him from abroad, and thus became a co-author of scientific works dealing with fungi from South Africa, South Australia, Mongolia, and China. He enjoyed painting and supplemented his mycological papers with his own illustrations. He also dealt with geology, paleontology, and poetry. Part of his herbarium, which numbered about 20,000 items, has been lost, the remaining material can be found in various Slovak museums (Bratislava, Igló, Tátra Lomnica) and foreign collections. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1864, and a full member in 1872. He was one of the founders of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and several foreign scientific societies also elected him an honorary member. Several plant species were named after him. ; ; His main works: ; List of Spiš mushrooms (Mat. and Term. tud. Közl.) 1865 and 1867, ; The vegetational character of the Spiš Ore Mountains, 1870, ; On the development of Hungarian mushroom growing, 1873, ; Selected pictures of mycelium of Hungary (I–IV. booklet), 1873–77, ; Siberian and South American Fungi, 1878, ; New or Lesser Known Succulents, 1880, ; New or Lesser Known Amanitas, 1883.