Karl Theodor Staiger (died 5 October 1888) was a German chemical analyst, naturalist and museum curator. Karl Theodor Staiger worked as a chemist for the Queensland Government 1873–80 and worked with Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay. He was secretary to the Queensland Museum from 1876 to 1879.^[1]

Staiger was one of a number of influential German-speaking residents — such as Ludwig Becker, Hermann Beckler, William Blandowski, Amalie Dietrich, Wilhelm Haacke, Diedrich Henne, Gerard Krefft, Johann Luehmann, Johann Menge, Ludwig Preiss, Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (a.k.a. Ruemker), Moritz Richard Schomburgk, Richard Wolfgang Semon, George Ulrich, Eugene von Guérard, Robert von Lendenfeld, Ferdinand von Mueller, Georg von Neumayer, and Carl Wilhelmi — who brought their "epistemic traditions" to Australia, and not only became "deeply entangled with the Australian colonial project", but also were "intricately involved in imagining, knowing and shaping colonial Australia" (Barrett, et al., 2018, p.2).^[2]

Works

Partial list

• Wurzellaus des Weinstockes (Phylloxera vastatrix in English the Grape Vine Destroyer translated from the German of Geo. David and Issued by the Queensland Board of Enquiry into Diseases of Plants and Animals Brisbane : J.C. Beal, (1878)
• with Frederick Manson Bailey An Illustrated Monograph of the Grasses of Queensland (1879).

The tree Eucalyptus staigeriana was named in his honour.