Eric (Don Ericus) Ragnor Sventenius (born Erik Ragnar Svensson; also known simply as Eric (Erich, Enrico) Ragnor) (10 October 1910 — 23 June 1973) was a Hispano-

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

botanist. Born in the small town of Skirö,

Vetlanda Vetlanda () is a locality and the seat of Vetlanda Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 13,050 inhabitants in 2010. History Vetlanda was still nothing more than a village for several centuries. With the 1840s population boom in Småland ...

, he studied in various universities across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, he studied at the Marimurta Botanical Garden in

Blanes Blanes () is a town and municipality in the comarca of Selva in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. During Roman rule it was named Blanda or Blandae. It is known as the "Gateway to the Costa Brava". Its coast is part of the Costa Brava, which stretches ...

which had been founded in 1920 by Karl Faust. In 1931, he traveled to the Canary Islands. In 1952, he began working at the Botanical Garden of

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

(''Jardín de Aclimatación de la Orotava''). He studied and cataloged unclassified Canarian

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. Sventenius proposed creating a botanical garden dedicated to Canarian

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

, continuing the work begun by José de Viera y Clavijo. At

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that ...

, he founded

Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo is the full name of the botanical garden on Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands. "Jardín Botánico Canario" means "Botanical Garden of the Canaries", while the additional words "Viera y Clavijo" honor ...

in 1952 at Tafira Alta, c. 7 km southwest of

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

. It opened its doors to the public in 1959. He worked as the garden's director until his death in 1973 in a car accident. His grave is in the Canarian Botanical Garden "Viera y Clavijo", right next to a rock where he used to sit and meditate, relax and listen to the birds. *The standard botanical author abbreviation Svent. is applied to the

he described.

Works by Sventenius

* Gerhard Benl, Eric R. Sventenius: ''Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Pteridophyten-Vegetation und-Flora in der Kanarischen Westprovinz (Tenerife, La Palma, Gomera, Hierro)'' (aus: Nova Hedwigia 20, S. 413-462, 1970), Lehre: Cramer Vlg., 1970 * E. R. Sventenius et D. Bramwell: ''Acta phytotaxonomica Barcinonensia'' ; Vol. 7 ; Heywoodiella genus novum, NBarcelona: Dep. de Botánica, Fac. de Ciencias, Univ. Autónoma, 1971 * G. Kunkel y Sventenius: ''Los Tiles de Moya. Enumeración florística y datos sobre el futuro parque natural'', (Cuadernos de Botánica Canaria, 14/15: 71-89), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1972 * Ericus R. Sventenius: ''Additamentum ad floram Canariensem'', Matriti: Agronomiarum investigationem nationale hispanicum Inst. (Instituto nacional de investigaciones agronómicas), 1960 * ''Plantae macaronesiensis novae vel minus cognitae'', in: Index Seminum Horti Acclimatationis Plantarum Arautapensi, 1968 * Ericus R. Sventenius, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias (Hrsg.): ''Notas sobre la flora de las Cañadas de Tenerife'', (Cuaderno/INIA; 78), p. 149-171, Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias, 1946 * Ericus R. Sventenius, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias (España) (Hrsg.): ''Contribución al conocimiento de la flora canaria'',(Cuaderno/INIA; 79), p. 176-194, Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias, 1946 * Ericus R. Sventenius, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias (Hrsg.): ''Plantas nuevas o poco conocidas de Tenerife'', (Cuaderno/INIA; 111), p. 22-33, Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias, 1949 * Ericus R. Sventenius, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias (Hrsg.): ''Specilegium canariense III'', (Cuaderno/INIA; 125), Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Centro de las Islas Canarias, 1950 * "Additamentum ad Floram Canariensem" Svensson Sventenius, Eric R. 1960.

External links

*
Biografía de Sventenius
*
Página oficial del Jardín Botánico Canario
*

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sventenius, Eric Ragnor 20th-century Swedish botanists 20th-century Spanish botanists Swedish expatriates in Spain Botanists with author abbreviations Road incident deaths in Spain 1910 births 1973 deaths History of the Canary Islands

Works by Sventenius

See also

External links