Hans Christian Lyngbye (29 June 1782 – 18 May 1837) was a Danish priest and

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 ...

, specialising in

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

Life

Hans Christian Lyngbye was born in

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, in 1782, the son of a teacher, Jens Michelsen Lyngbye. He attended the Latin school in Aalborg until 1802 when he took as his tutor a priest on the island of

Vendsyssel Vendsyssel () is the northernmost traditional district of Denmark and of Jutland. Being divided from mainland Jutland by the Limfjord, it is technically a part of the North Jutlandic Island, but the name often used informally for the entire island. ...

. He studied botany and theology and graduated in 1812. He then worked with the botanist Niels Hofman Bang which awoke his interest in algae. He won a competition set by the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

and as a result, Hornemann paid for the printing of his work on algae, ''Tentamen Hydrophytologiæ Danica'', which was published in 1819. It contained meticulous descriptions of 321 species of marine algae with illustrations of 70, including 7 new genera and 50 new species, and raised awareness of the algal flora of Denmark,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. He visited the Faroe Islands in 1817 and wrote a treatise on

pilot whale Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus ''Globicephala''. The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (''G. melas'') and the short-finned pilot whale (''G. macrorhynchus''). The two are not readily distinguishable at sea, a ...

s and whaling. He was also fascinated by the old Faroese fables and ballads and made a collection of them, going so far as to learn the old Faroese language in order to be able to write them down. One of these was

Loka Táttur ''Loka Táttur'' or ''Lokka Táttur'' (tale, or '' þáttr'' of Loki) is a Faroese ballad ( Corpus Carminum Færoensium 13D) which is a rare example of the occurrence of Norse gods in folklore. The ballad probably dates back to the late Middle A ...

, a rare depiction of Norse gods in folklore. From 1819, he worked as a priest, first at Gjesing and Nørager and later on the coast at Søborg and Gilleleje. Here he was able to pursue his studies of

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

.Lyngbye, Hans Christian
/ref> In 1836, he wrote a dissertation for a doctorate degree, but it remained forgotten in the pocket of the cloak worn by the messenger conveying it to the University of Copenhagen and it missed the deadline. He died the following year. The botanical part of the thesis was published in 1879. The genus of

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

, ''

Lyngbya ''Lyngbya'' is a genus of cyanobacteria, unicellular autotrophs that form the basis of the oceanic food chain. As a result of recent genetic analyses, several new genera were erected from this genus: ''e.g.'', ''Moorea'', '' Limnoraphis'', '' O ...

'', was named in his honour.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyngbye, Hans Christian 1782 births 1837 deaths 19th-century Danish botanists Danish phycologists People from Aalborg