Per Axel Rydberg

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Per Axel Rydberg (born July 6, 1860 in Od , Västergötland , † July 25, 1931 in New York City ) was a Swedish botanist and the first curator of the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Rydb. "

Life

Per Axel Rydberg was born on July 6, 1860 as the son of Ernest Adolf Fredrik and Thekla Elfrida (nee Otterström) Rydberg in Od, Sweden. He attended the royal high school in Skara .

In 1882, Rydberg migrated from Sweden to the United States , initially to work in iron ore mines in Michigan . Due to a serious accident, he was unable to achieve his goal of getting a job as a mining engineer through this work. In 1884 he began studying at the University of Nebraska , at the same time he was also teaching mathematics at the Luther Academy in Wahoo . During this time, under the influence of Professor Charles Edwin Bessey, he developed his interest in botany.

Shortly after he received his bachelor's degree in 1891, he explored western Nebraska with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture , followed by further expeditions to the Black Hills in South Dakota (1892) and the Sandhills in western Nebraska (1893). In 1895 he received his Masters degree from the University of Nebraska . Another expedition, this time in Montana and the publication of a monograph on the Rose-like (Rosales) for the Flora of Nebraska were the last activities at this university.

From autumn 1895 Rydberg worked at Columbia University in New York under the guidance of Nathaniel Lord Britton on his dissertation . Other expeditions took him again to Montana and Yellowstone National Park during this time ; The client was the New York Botanical Garden . Rydberg received his doctorate in 1898, the title of his dissertation is Monograph of the North American Potentilleae .

At the beginning of 1899, when he was processing the herbarium specimens collected during his last expeditions , the Botanical Garden took on its first nine permanent employees, Rydberg was one of them. Initially his position was called Assistant Curator , from 1908 until his death he was the curator of the herbarium. As an employee of the Botanical Garden, he took part in a number of expeditions for botanical exploration in the United States, including in southeastern Colorado , Utah , Minnesota , Iowa , Nebraska, Kansas, and South and North Dakota . An expedition in 1929 that was to take him to Kansas and Minnesota had to be canceled due to illness.

Rydberg married his wife Alfrida Amanda on November 11, 1903 in New York and they had four children together: Arthur Alfred, Elsa Margreta, Lilly Irene and Linea Astrid. Rydberg died on July 25, 1931 in New York.

Awards and memberships

Rydberg was elected a member of the Torrey Botanical Club in 1896 . From 1900 he was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the following year he was made a Fellow of this organization. The Botanical Society of America named him in 1901 to associate . In 1907 he became a member of the American Geographical Society and the Ecological Society of America .

After him, the plant genera Rydbergia Greene from the sunflower family (Asteraceae) and Rydbergiella Fedde & P.Syd are. named from the legume family (Fabaceae).

literature

  • New York Botanical Garden: Per Axel Rydberg, Biographical Note ( online , accessed January 18, 2014.)
  • James T. White & Company (Eds.): The National Cyclopædia of American Biography , Volume 26, 1937. pp. 43-44.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rydberg, Per Axel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish botanist
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Od , Västergötland
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1931
Place of death New York City