Georg (Göran) Wahlenberg (1 October 1780 – 22 March 1851) was a Swedish

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. He was born in Kroppa, Värmland County. Wahlenberg matriculated at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in 1792, received his doctorate in Medicine in 1806, was appointed ''botanices demonstrator'' in 1814, and

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 ...

of medicine and botany in 1829, succeeding

Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Sweden, Swedish Natural history, naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus ...

. He was the last holder of the undivided chair that in the previous century had been held by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

. After his death in 1851, the chair was divided into more delimited professorships, and botany became the main duty of the borgströmian professorship, at the time held by Elias Fries. Wahlenberg made his main work in the field of plant geography and published, among other things the ''Flora lapponica'' (1812) and other works on the plant world of northernmost Sweden. He was among the first major scholars to contribute to the plant taxonomy and geography of the High Tatras in the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

where he carried out research in 1813 (he also determined mountain elevations, but some were later disproved by Ludwig Greiner). Two of the highest mountain lakes in the Tatras, now in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, are named Upper Wahlenberg Tarn (''Vyšné Wahlenbergovo pleso''; elevation ) and Lower Wahlenberg Tarn (''Nižné Wahlenbergovo pleso''; ) in his memory.Furkotská Valley with Upper and Lower Wahlenberg Lakes.
/ref> Wahlenberg was elected a member of 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 ...

in 1808. The flowering plant genus ''

Wahlenbergia ''Wahlenbergia'' is a genus of around 260 species of flowering plants in the Family (biology), family Campanulaceae. Plants in this genus are Perennial plant, perennial or Annual plant, annual Herbaceous plant, herbs with simple leaves and blue t ...

'' and the

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

genus '' Wahlenbergiella'' are named after him, as was a species of wood-rush: '' Luzula wahlenbergii''. He died in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wahlenberg, Goran 1780 births 1851 deaths Swedish phycologists Swedish pteridologists Botanists with author abbreviations Swedish mycologists 19th-century Swedish botanists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Burials at Uppsala old cemetery

See also

References