Petter Adolf Karsten (16 February 1834 – 22 March 1917) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

mycologist, the foremost expert on the

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

of Finland in his day, and known in consequence as the "father of Finnish mycology". Karsten was born in

Merimasku Merimasku () is a former municipality of Finland. It was, together with Rymättylä and Velkua, consolidated with the town of Naantali on January 1, 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland r ...

near

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

, studied at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

, and then moved to the inland of Tammela, where he spent most of his life with teaching botany and doing research at the Mustiala Agriculture Institute (now the Faculty of Agriculture of the HAMK University of Applied Sciences). He amassed a vast collection, both by his own efforts and those of his correspondents, and named about 200 new genera and 2,000 new

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 ...

. In his mycological studies he extensively used the microscope and can be considered as the pioneer of fungal microscopy. ''Karstenia'', the international journal of mycology published by the Finnish Mycological Society, is dedicated to Karsten.

Honours

In 1885, botanist Elias Magnus Fries published ''

Karstenia ''Karstenia'' is a genus of fungi in the order Rhytismatales. The relationship of this taxon to other taxa within the order (biology), order is unknown (''incertae sedis''), and it has not yet been placed with certainty into any family (biology), ...

'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of fungi in the order

Rhytismatales The Rhytismatales are an order of the class Leotiomycetes within the phylum Ascomycota. Genera ''incertae sedis'' The following genera within the Rhytismatales have not been placed with any certainty into a family (''incertae sedis ' ( ...

. It was named in Petter Adolf Karsten's honour. In 1889, he published '' Onnia'', which is a genus of fungi in the family

Hymenochaetaceae The ''Hymenochaetaceae'' are a family of fungi in the order Hymenochaetales. The family contains several species that are implicated in many diseases of broad-leaved and coniferous trees, causing heart rot, canker and root diseases, and also es ...

. The genus name of ''Onnia'' was in honour of Onni Alexander Karsten (1868-1958), who was a Finnish gardener and Petter Adolf Karsten's son. In 1969, Harri Harmaja published '' Karstenella'' which is a genus of fungi in the order Pezizales (of family Karstenellaceae). Lastly, '' Karsteniomyces'', which is a genus of

lichenicolous fungi A lichenicolous fungus is a parasitic fungus that only lives on lichen as the host. A lichenicolous fungus is not the same as the fungus that is the component of the lichen, which is known as a lichenized fungus. They are most commonly specific to ...

of unknown familial, ordinal, and

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...

placement in the Ascomycota. The genus was circumscribed by David Leslie Hawksworth in 1980.

References

* Finnish mycologists 1834 births 1917 deaths Finnish taxonomists {{Mycologist-stub