Pieter Willem Korthals

Pieter Willem Korthals (September 1, 1807, Amsterdam – March 1892, Haarlem) was a Dutch botanist. Korthals was the official botanist with the Dutch East India Service from 1831 to 1836. Among his many discoveries was the medicinal plant Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa).^[1]: 59 Korthals wrote the first monograph on the tropical pitcher plants, "Over het geslacht Nepenthes", published in 1839.^[2]

Pieter Willem Korthals

Carl Ludwig Blume named the botanical genus Korthalsia (family Arecaceae) after Korthals,^[3] and Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem introduced the genus name Korthalsella (family Santalaceae) in his honor.^[4] Bulbophyllum korthalsii was named after him.