Markku Häkkinen (14 January 1946 – 5 December 2015) was a Finnish self-taught botanist, considered one of the world's leading experts on the

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of bananas. Forty-six out of the seventy known species of wild bananas have been described by Häkkinen. The

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

awarded him the H. H. Bloomer Award of 2009. In 2015 Häkkinen received the Finnish Cultural Foundation's Award for outstanding cultural achievement. Häkkinen became interested in botany on his travels around the world during his career as a fully certificated sea captain. After retiring, he dedicated himself to botany. He made 18 expeditions to

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

, China,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. He published over 80 papers in international scientific journals. The following ''

Musa Musa may refer to: Places * Mūša, a river in Lithuania and Latvia * Musa, Azerbaijan, a village in Yardymli Rayon * Musa, Iran, a village in Ilam Province * Musa, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran *Musa, Kerman, Iran * Musa, Bukan, West Azerbaija ...

'' species was named in honor of him: '' Musa haekkinenii'', ''Musa velutina'' subsp. ''markkuana''. and '' Musa markkui''.

References

External links

*
List of Markku Häkkinen's publications

Bulletin
2013 – Vol. 65(1): 19–26.
Musa sections revisited
1946 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Finnish botanists Finnish sailors Bananas 21st-century Finnish botanists {{Finland-botanist-stub