Oskar Eric Gunnar Hultén (18 March 1894 – 1 February 1981) was a Swedish

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, plant geographer and 20th century explorer of The Arctic. He was born in Halla in

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

. He took his licentiate exam 1931 at

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

and obtained his

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

in 1937. In his thesis, he coined the term ''

Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 70th parallel north, 72° north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south ...

'' for the ice-age land bridge between

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. From 1945 to 1961, he was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and head of the Botany Section at the

Swedish Museum of Natural History The Swedish Museum of Natural History (), in Stockholm, is one of two major museums of natural history in Sweden, the other one being located in Gothenburg. The museum was founded in 1819 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but goes bac ...

. In 1953, he was elected to the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

as member number 977. Hultén travelled extensively in the Scandes Mountains and

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

(1920–22 together with his spouse Elsie Hultén, Sten Bergman and René Malaise), the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

(1932). He published extensive accounts on the

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

of several of these regions and distribution maps of thousands of species. Hultén edited an

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

entitled with ''G. Samuelsson (+): Plantae Sueciae exsiccatae. Edidit Eric Hultén''. It is a series of numbered duplicate specimens collected by the Swedish botanist Gunnar Samuelsson (1885 – 1944) and - after his death - distributed among a number of institutional

herbaria 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 (called ...

. He was the father of the

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and art collector Pontus Hultén. Hultén authored several botanical monographies on the Nordic area and from his travels in Siberia and the Aleutian Islands. In 1973, he published his memoirs under the title ''Men roligt har det varit'' ("But it's been fun"). Several dozen plant species have been named to his honour, e.g.IPNI query
/ref> *'' Ligusticum hultenii'', by

Merritt Lyndon Fernald Merritt Lyndon Fernald (October 5, 1873 – September 22, 1950) was an American botanist. He was a respected scholar of the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and phytogeography of the vascular plant flora of temperate eastern North America. During his ...

*'' Salix hultenii'', by Björn Floderus

References

* Hultén, Eric (1927–1930) Flora of Kamtchatka and the adjacent islands, vol. 1-4. Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar 5(1) and 8(2). Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. * Hultén, Eric (1937) Flora of the Aleutian islands and westernmost Alaska peninsula with notes on the flora of Commander islands. Stockholm, Thule. 397 pp. 2nd edn. 1960 (series: Flora et vegetatio mundi, vol. 1) Weinheim, Cramer. 376 pp. * Hultén, Eric (1937) Outline of the history of arctic and boreal biota during the quaternary period: their evolution during and after the glacial period as indicated by the equiformal progressive areas of present plant species. Stockholm, Thule. 168 pp. Dissertation,

. * Hultén, Eric (1940) History of botanical exploration in Alaska and Yukon territories from the time of their discovery to 1940. Meddelanden från Lunds Botaniska Museum vol. 50, 346 pp. Reprint J. Cramer, 1972. * Hultén, Eric (1941–1950) Flora of Alaska and Yukon, vol. 1-10. Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, 2 avd Medicin samt matematiska och naturvetenskapliga ämnen and Kungl. Fysiografiska sällskapets i Lund handlingar. * Hultén, Eric (1950) Atlas över växternas utbredning i Norden : fanerogamer och ormbunksväxter = Atlas of the distribution of vascular plants in northwestern Europe. Stockholm, Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalt. 512 pp. * Hultén, Eric (1958) The Amphi-atlantic plants and their phytogeographical connections. Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar, 4:7:1: 340 pp. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. Reprinted by Koeltz, 1973. * Hultén, Eric (1962) The circumpolar plants. 1, Vascular cryptogams, conifers, monocotyledons. Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar, 4:8:5: 275 pp. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. * Hultén, Eric (1968) Flora of Alaska and neighboring territories: a manual of the vascular plants. Stanford CA. 1008 pp. * Hultén, Eric (1971) The circumpolar plants. 2, Dicotyledons. Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar, 4:13:1: 463 pp. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. * Hultén, Eric (1971) Atlas över växternas utbredning i Norden : fanerogamer och ormbunksväxter = Atlas of the distribution of vascular plants in northwestern Europe, 2nd edn. Stockholm, Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalt. 531 pp. Most of the maps may be found a
Den Virtuella Floran
* Hultén, Eric & Fries, Magnus (1986) Atlas of North European vascular plants: north of the Tropic of Cancer, vol. 1-3. Königstein, Koeltz. Many of the maps may be found a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulten, Eric 20th-century Swedish botanists 1894 births 1981 deaths Botanists active in the Arctic Botanists active in North America Botanists active in Siberia Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences People from Nyköping Municipality