Abundio Sagástegui Alva (1932–2012) was a Peruvian plant taxonomist and specialist of
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...
and the
flora of Peru
The flora of Peru is very diverse.
Jungle flora
The animals rainforests of Peru are the homes of many different species of trees as well as Orchidaceae flowering plants. Other plants found in the Peruvian jungles include:
*'' Swietenia mahagoni' ...
, particularly that of Northern Peru.
Biography
Sagástegui was born to a modest family in
Guzmango,
Contumazá Province
Contumazá Province is a province of the Cajamarca Region
Cajamarca (; qu, Kashamarka; ay, Qajamarka) is a department and region in Peru. The capital is the city of Cajamarca. It is located in the north part of the country and shares a bo ...
, in 1932. His father was Godofrego Sagástegui Chávez and his mother Otilia Alva.
[ He went to the local school, where he finished first in his class. Thanks to this he was granted a scholarship and continued his studies at the Colegio Nacional San Ramón, in ]Cajamarca
Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru ...
where again he excelled in his studies. This dedication allowed him to continue his studies at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (UNT), where he would eventually achieve the degree of doctor
Doctor or The Doctor may refer to:
Personal titles
* Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree
* A medical practitioner, including:
** Physician
** Surgeon
** Dentist
** Veterinary physician
** Optometrist
*Other roles
* ...
of biological science in 1976.[ He is also remembered for his mentorship skills, his ebullient personality and the remarkable enthusiasm he displayed for his work.
In 1956, after spending two years as a ]secondary education
Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...
teacher in Otuzco
The Otuzco is a city located in the highlands of La Libertad, Peru. It is the capital of the Otuzco Province, and it is well known because there is the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Puerta. It is located at around .
Founding
The Otuzcans, led ...
, he entered the staff of the UNT where he would over the years teach botany
Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), 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 "bot ...
and phytogeography
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...
—eventually achieving the title of "principal exclusive professor" (''profesor principal dedicación exclusiva'')—as well as becoming the first official curator of the university's herbarium
A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...
.[ He then directed the botanical ]museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
until his departure in 1988.[ He moved on to Antenor Orrego Private University, where he worked for 17 years, during which he also rose to the rank of principal exclusive professor as well as founding and directing the museum of natural history, the university herbarium and the journal ''Arnaldoa''. In 2006 he went back to his alma mater UNT, where he would work until his death at the herbarium.][
On the morning of May 26, 2012, he was grievously injured when he was hit by an unlicensed taxi driver in Trujillo. Following radiographies, he was transferred from Docente Regional Hospital to Víctor Lazarte Echegaray National Hospital, where he underwent overnight surgery, but never awoke from the operation and died at the next day.][ He was survived by at least one brother, Vigilio,][ his wife Rita de Sagástegui and nine children. Although he had hoped some of them, who mostly became scientists, would take up botany, the closest he got to this was an agronomist.][ His funeral services were held at the UNT with speeches by several current and former officials of the university.][
]
Scientific career
Alongside his teachers Nicolás Angulo Espino and Arnaldo López Miranda, which he greatly admired (he named after the later a genus and the journal he founded) and constantly referred to both in daily life and teachings, he is thought of as a pioneer of botany in Northern Peru. He considered fieldwork to be a major component of botanical research, and all his manuals, such as ''Fitogeografía General y del Perú'' ("General and Peruvian Phytogeography", six editions), were based on extensive fieldwork. All that fieldwork amounted to some 18 000 specimens distributed in Peruvian and American herbaria (mostly the Herbarium Antenor Orrego and the Herbarium Truxillense). He worked in multiple areas of botany, not only systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic t ...
, but also phytogeography
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...
,