Schultes

Schultes is a German surname with origins in the medieval office of Schultheiß, a village head or magistrate. The name likely arose as an occupational descriptor for someone who held that role and later became a hereditary family name. It is related to other German surnames such as Schulte and Schult, and there are several variant spellings in German-speaking regions and among descendants abroad.

Notable people with the surname include Richard Evans Schultes (1915–2001), an American botanist and ethnobotanist who conducted extensive fieldwork in the Amazon. His research documented the traditional uses of plants by Indigenous peoples and helped establish ethnobotany as a formal discipline, influencing subsequent work in pharmacology, anthropology, and conservation.