Johan Emanuel Wikström

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Johan Emanuel Wikström (born November 1, 1789 in Vänersborg , † May 4, 1856 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish botanist . His first name can also be found in the spelling Johann . His botanical author abbreviation is “ Wikstr. "

Live and act

Johan Emanuel Wikström was born on November 1st, 1789 in the small town of Vänersborg in southwestern Sweden. His father Johan Wikström was a factory caretaker; his mother was Carolina Charlotta Bahrman. On February 18, 1806, Johan Emanuel Wikström began studying law at Uppsala University , in accordance with his father's wishes . For some time he worked at the district court in Vänersborg. The legal profession was not for him, however. Wikström visited the University of Uppsala again to study medicine. In 1815 he graduated; In 1817 he was licensed in medicine and received a doctorate in medicine in the same year. He then became a doctor at a hospital in Stockholm .

Wikström had attended lectures by the botanist Carl Peter Thunberg in medicine and natural sciences. During his holidays he usually stayed in Stockholm at the Bergielund Botanical Garden , where he became a good friend of Olof Peter Swartz , who was Professor Bergianus there. It was through these two botanists that Wikström was inspired to turn more and more to botany. When Olof Swartz died in September 1818, Wikström was his successor; For this he gave up his medical career and from this time devoted himself fully to botany. Wikström took this position on November 11, 1818; In 1823 he received the title of professor. He wrote a biography in honor of his predecessor. The Bergius Foundation's horticultural school was internationally recognized for its fruit tree plantations and vegetable gardens. As director of the garden, Wikström also took on the task of instructing the gardeners to be trained. He also directed the Botanical Museum of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .

From 1821 to 1843 Wikström also taught natural history at secondary school in Stockholm, which he did for free two-thirds of the time out of idealism.

Despite recurring restrictions due to illness, Wikström did research in addition to his duties. He completed a study of the genus Daphne (1817 and 1820) and wrote a 1818 published review article on the Seidelbastgewächsen (Thymelaeaceae). He described new species in the genera Lonchostoma , Eriocaulon , Fritillaria and Rosa . These descriptions, as well as two papers on new species in the genera Equisetum and Filices, were published by Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar .

His arrangements of the flora of the Antilles islands of Saint Bartholomew and Guadeloupe appeared in 1825 and 1827; they were based on the collected plant material of the Swedish travelers BA Euphrasén (1756–1796) and JE Forsström (1775–1824). On the basis of his extensive excursions around Stockholm, Wikström published the first comprehensive description of Stockholm's flora. This also contains important observations on geology and the animal world.

The Academy entrusted Wikström with the task of preparing an annual report on ongoing domestic and foreign botanical research. These reports appeared from 1822 to 1852; some of them have been translated into German. Together these reports are over 12,000 pages. In his work Conspectus litteraturae botanicae in Suecia , Wikström gave an overview of most of the complete botanical literature published in Sweden up to 1831; thus Wikström became the first historian of Swedish botanical literature.

Wikström rarely went abroad; he went to Hamburg (1820) and Copenhagen (1847) to take part in meetings with natural scientists. He was in poor health from childhood. In the last years of his life, Wikström was mostly bedridden; he died on May 4, 1856 in Stockholm.

Honors

In 1820 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . In 1820 Wikström was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ; In 1821 he was accepted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture .

The plant genus Wikstroemia Endl. from the family of the Seidelbastgewächse (Thymelaeaceae) was named in 1833 by the Austrian botanist and sinologist Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher in his honor. Heinrich Adolf Schrader ( Wikstroemia ) and Kurt Sprengel ( Wikströmia ) had already named genera after Wikström in 1821, but they were discarded again. Schrader's Wikstroemia is now the genus Laplacea in the tea bush family (Theaceae), and the plant described by Sprengel as Wikströmia turned out to belong to the genus Wasserdost ( Eupatorium ).

Fonts (selection)

  • Conspectus litteraturae botanicae in Suecia… 1831 ( books.google.de ).
  • Advising about botaniska work and upptäckter for år 1836: till Kongl. Vetenskaps-Academien afgiven 31 mars 1837 . PA Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm 1838, OCLC 904771698 ( books.google.com ).
  • Stockholm's flora . 1840.

literature

  • Adolph Carl Peter Callisen: Wikström (Johann Emanuel) . In: Medicinisches Writer Lexicon of the now living physicians, surgeons, obstetricians, pharmacists and naturalists of all educated nations . tape 21 : World - Zz . Self-published, Copenhagen 1835, p. 150 ( books.google.de ).
  • Wikström, Johan Emanuel . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 731-732 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • CAM Lindman: Wikström, Johan Emanuel . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 32 : Werth – Väderkvarn . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1921, Sp. 412 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • Bo Peterson: Johan Emanuel Wikström, with Historical Notes on the Genus Wikstroemia . In: Pacific Science . tape 50 , no. 1 , 1996, p. 77-83 .
  • Robert Zander : Zander concise dictionary of plant names . Ed .: Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Em. Wikström: Biography about Prof. Olof Swartz . PA Norstedt & Sons, Stockholm 1829 ( books.google.de ).
  2. ^ Member entry by Johan Emanuel Wikstroem at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on November 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ Wikstroemia Endl. worldfloraonline.org, accessed June 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Wikström, Johan Emanuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wikström, Johann Emanuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish botanist
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Vanersborg
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1856
Place of death Stockholm