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

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and ...

, the foremost expert on the

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

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

Merimasku Merimasku () is a List of former municipalities of Finland, 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 provinces of Finland, provin ...

near

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

, studied at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

, 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 Alula Aba Nega Airport , also known as Mekelle Airport, is a public airport serving Mekelle, the capital city of the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia. The airport is located southeast of the city. History This airport was built in the late ...

). He amassed a vast collection, both by his own efforts and those of his correspondents, and named about 200 new

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

and 2,000 new

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. Between 1861 and 1870 Karsten edited the

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 ...

series ''Fungi Fenniae exsiccati. Samling af Finska svampar'' with 1,000 numbers. 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 Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. He is sometimes called the Mycology, "Linnaeus of Mycology". In his works he described and assigned botanical names to hundreds of fungus and li ...

published ''

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

'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 or ...

. 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 (biology), 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 disea ...

. 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 The Pezizales are an order of the subphylum Pezizomycotina within the phylum Ascomycota. The order contains 16 families, 199 genera, and 1683 species. It contains a number of species of economic importance, such as morels, the black and whit ...

(of family Karstenellaceae). Lastly, ''

Karsteniomyces ''Karsteniomyces'' is a genus of lichenicolous fungi of unknown familial, ordinal, and class placement in the Ascomycota. The genus was circumscribed by David Leslie Hawksworth in 1980. The species of this genus are found in Europe. The gen ...

'', which is a genus of

lichenicolous fungi A lichenicolous fungus is a member of a specialised group of fungi that live exclusively on lichens as their host (biology), host organisms. These fungi, comprising over 2,000 known species across 280 genera, exhibit a wide range of ecological st ...

of unknown familial, ordinal, and

class Class, Classes, 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 d ...

placement in the

Ascomycota Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The def ...

. The genus was

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

David Leslie Hawksworth David Leslie Hawksworth (born 1946 in Sheffield, UK) is a British mycologist and lichenologist currently with a professorship in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Madrid, Spain and also a Scientific Associate of The Natural History Mu ...

in 1980.

References

* Finnish mycologists Naturalists from the Russian Empire 1834 births 1917 deaths Finnish taxonomists {{Mycologist-stub

Honours

See also

References