Life

Gertrud Dahlgren (1931–2009) was a Swedish

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 ...

. She was born at Klippan in

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

, and after graduating from university at

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , , ) is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...

went to the

University of Lund , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion M.Sc. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in chemistry and biology. She was married to fellow botanist

Rolf Dahlgren Rolf Martin Theodor Dahlgren (7 July 1932 – 14 February 1987) was a Swedish-Danish botanist and professor at the University of Copenhagen from 1973 to his death. Life Dahlgren was born in Örebro on 7 July 1932 to apothecary Rudolf Dahlgren ...

(1932–1987), who was killed in a car accident. Gertrud Dahlgren had three children, Elisabet, Karin and Anders. She died in February 2009 at the age of 78.

Career

At Lund, Gertrud Dahlgren pursued studies in systematic botany. Henning Weimarck, who held the chair in Systematic Botany, had initiated a new line of research in the mid-1950s, the field of biosystematics, which was to become Gertrud Dahlgren's chosen field, and to receive international attention. She achieved her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1967 for her work on the genus ''

Sanguisorba ''Sanguisorba'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The common name is burnet. Description The plants are herbaceous perennials or small shrubs. The stems grow to 50 ...

'', and in particular two Swedish species, '' S. officinalis'' and '' S. minor''. She was appointed to the position of Associate professor at Lund, and continued her work in biostematics, with especial interest in ''

Ranunculus ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe ...

'' and ''

Erodium ''Erodium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the botanical family Geraniaceae. The genus includes about 60 species, native to North Africa, Indomalaya, the Middle East, and Australia. They are perennials, annuals, or subshrubs, with five-petall ...

'', and editing a textbook on systematic botany, which was later translated into German. In 1979 she was appointed head of the department of Systematic Botany at Lund, a position she held till 1987 when, following the death of her husband, she turned to continuing his work on

angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

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. ...

. In 1992 she was elected to the ''Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet i Lund'' (

Royal Physiographic Society in Lund The Royal Physiographic Society in Lund ( sv, Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet i Lund), is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. It was founded in Lund, on December 2, 1772, and received a Royal Charter by Gustav III, on March 6, 1778.

Selected publications

* * * * 1989. The last Dahlgrenogram: System of classification of the dicotyledons. pp. 249–260, in K. Tan, R. R. Mill & T. S. Elias (eds.), Plant taxonomy, phytogeography and related subjects. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. * 1991. Steps toward a natural system of the Dicotyledons: Embryological characters. Aliso 13: 107–165.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dahlgren, Gertrud 1931 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Swedish botanists 21st-century Swedish botanists 21st-century Swedish women scientists Swedish women botanists Swedish taxonomists Women taxonomists Lund University faculty People from Scania 20th-century Swedish women scientists