Gualterio Looser Schallemberg (September 4, 1898,

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

– July 22, 1982) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and engineer of

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

parentage. He owned a factory that made agricultural implements. In 1928 Looser joined the

American Fern Society The American Fern Society was founded in 1893. Today, it has more than 1,000 members around the world, with various local chapters. Among its deceased members, perhaps the most famous is Oliver Sacks, who became a member in 1993. Willard N. Clut ...

, and started to publish papers on the

pteridophytes A pteridophyte is a vascular plant (with xylem and phloem) that disperses spores. Because pteridophytes produce neither flowers nor seeds, they are sometimes referred to as "cryptogams", meaning that their means of reproduction is hidden. Ferns, ...

of Chile.Marticorena C. 1984. Gaulterio Looser (1898.1982) Am. Fern J. 74, His

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

containing ca. 8000 specimens was given to

Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the city of Geneva () is a museum and an institution of the City of Geneva. Establishment and location It was founded in 1817 in a former area of ''Bastions Park'' in 1817 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle ...

Some taxa described by G Looser

* ''Boldea boldus'' (='' Peumus boldus''). * ''

Cryptocarya alba ''Cryptocarya alba'', the peumo or Chilean acorn, is an evergreen tree that grows in Chile and Argentina from 33 to 40° southern latitude. It can live both in wet and as in dry conditions. Its distribution can reach up to 1500 meters (5000 ...

'' ( Molina) Looser. * ''Laureliopsis philippiana'' (Looser)

Schodde Richard Schodde, OAM (born 23 September 1936) is an Australian botanist and ornithologist. Schodde studied at the University of Adelaide, where he received a BSc (Hons) in 1960 and a PhD in 1970. During the 1960s he was a botanist with the ...

as ''

Laurelia ''Laurelia'' is a genus of plant in the major group Angiosperms (flowering plants) in the family Atherospermataceae, or formerly Monimiaceae. It contains only two species, both endemic to the southern hemisphere, an example of Gondwanan distri ...

''. * ''Sticherus squamulosus'' ( Desv.) Nakai var. ''gunckelianus'' (Looser) R. Rodr. et Ponce as ''

Dicranopteris ''Dicranopteris'' (forkedfern) is a genus of tropical ferns of the family Gleicheniaceae. There are about 20 described species. Species , ''Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the R ...

''.

Notes

20th-century Chilean botanists Pteridologists Chilean people of Swiss-German descent Scientists from Santiago 1898 births 1982 deaths {{chile-botanist-stub