Luís Wittnich Carrisso (14 February 1886 – 14 June 1937) was a Portuguese

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 ...

, professor at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

. Carrisso was born in Figueira da Foz.Sara Graca da Silva; Fatima Vieira; Jorge Bastos da Silva. ''(Dis)Entangling Darwin: Cross-disciplinary Reflections on the Man and His Legacy''. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 105-110. He attended the Faculty of Philosophy of University of Coimbra (1904-1910). After graduating he became a student of botanist

Julio Augusto Henriques Júlio Augusto Henriques (15 January 1838 - 15 January 1928) was a Portuguese botanist and professor at the University of Coimbra. He developed the Herbarium of the University and Coimbra Botanical Garden. He also founded the Broterian Society, wh ...

. Carrisso took interest in evolution and heredity and presented his PhD thesis ''Hereditariedade'' in 1911. He published scientific work on ecology and

plant systematics The history of plant systematics—the biological classification of plants—stretches from the work of ancient Greek to modern evolutionary biologists. As a field of science, plant systematics came into being only slowly, early plant lore usuall ...

. In 1918, he became Professor of Botany at University of Coimbra's

Botanical Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

. He was a supporter of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

's theory of evolution but was skeptical of the role of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

. He embraced

mutationism Mutationism is one of several alternatives to evolution by natural selection that have existed both before and after the publication of Charles Darwin's 1859 book ''On the Origin of Species''. In the theory, mutation was the source of novelty, cr ...

. He died on 6 June 1937 in the

Namib The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba Ri ...

desert (

Moçâmedes Moçâmedes is a List of cities and towns in Angola, city in southwestern Angola, and the capital of Namibe Province. The city's current population is 255,000 (2014 census). Founded in 1840 by the Portuguese Angola, Portuguese colonial administr ...

), in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, of cardiac syncope, during his third botanical expedition to that country. A monument was erected at the site in his memory.

Eponymy

*''

Carrissoa ''Carrissoa'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae. The genus has a single species, ''Carrissoa angolensis'', a subshrub endemic to Angola. It grows in seasonally-dry tropical open bushland ...

References

External links

*Jorge Guimarães
Carrisso, Luís Wittnich, 1886-1937JSTOR: Carrisso, Luis Wettnich (1886-1937)
*Fátima Sales (2007)
Luís Carrisso
1886 births People from Figueira da Foz 1937 deaths Mutationism 20th-century Portuguese botanists Portuguese people of German descent {{Portugal-botanist-stub