Andreas Dahl (botanist)

Andreas Dahl , also Anders Dahl (born March 17, 1751 in Varnhem , Skaraborg , Västergötland , Sweden ; † May 25, 1789 in Åbo , today Turku , Finland ) was a Swedish botanist and doctor . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Dahl ".

Life

The dahlia - named after Andreas Dahl

Andreas Dahl grew up as the son of a pastor. He was baptized Andreas (Andrus?), Later called himself Anders. The family moved from Varnhem to the Saleby area in 1755 , where his father got a parish. From 1761 Andreas Dahl went to the Skara school , where he and friends discovered his love for the natural sciences. In 1769 Dahl founded together with Johan Abraham, Leonard Gyllenhaal, Johan Afzelius, Daniel Naezén, Olof Knös and Clas Bjerkander the " Svenska Topographiska Sällskapet i Skara " (Swedish Topographical Society for Skara). In the writings of the society, works on plant and animal life, on geography and topography, on historical monuments and on the economic life of Västergötland were published. During the years around 1770 Dahl wrote numerous works on various topics, most of which he did not publish.

In 1770 Andreas Dahl enrolled as a student at Uppsala University . One of his teachers there was Carl von Linné . After the death of his father in 1771, he first had to finish his studies, but was later able to complete his medical studies and, with the support of Linné, was employed as a curator in Claes Alströmer's private natural history cabinet . In 1786 he received an honorary doctorate in medicine from the University of Kiel , and in 1787 he was appointed professor of medicine and botany at the Academy in Turku (now the University of Helsinki ).

Dahl also brought his herbarium to Turku, where it was largely destroyed in a fire in 1827. Parts of his herbarium are preserved in the Sahlberg Herbarium in the Botanical Museum of the University of Helsinki and in the Giseke Herbarium in the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh.

The botanist Carl Peter Thunberg , a friend of Dahl's, named a species of the witch hazel family (Hamamelidaceae) after him Dahlia crinita , but did not publish this before 1792. According to the nomenclature rules, the name Dahlia now applies to a plant that the Spaniard used Antonio José Cavanilles , the director of the Botanical Garden in Madrid, had already awarded a species of daisy family ( Dahlia pinnata ) in 1791 . This plant was introduced to Europe from Mexico in 1784 . The valid name for "Thunberg's Dahlia" is now Trichocladus crinitus (Thunb.) Pers. . With Adam Afzelius , with whom Dahl had been friends since his school days, he worked together on the new edition of Linnés Flora Svecica . In particular, he contributed data on plant species and their localities on the Swedish west coast. He also edited some species descriptions and their systematic position in the Linnaeus system .

Fonts

• Observationes botanicae circa systema vegetabilium divi a Linne Gottingae 1784 editum, quibus accedit justae in manes Linneanos pietatis specimen . 1787
• Horologium Florae . In: Ny Journal uti Hushållningen . 1790

Web links

• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Andreas Dahl (botanist) at the IPNI
• http://www2.nrm.se/fbo/hist/dahl/anddahl.html.en (English)