Pehr Löfling (31 January 1729 – 22 February 1756) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

botanist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus.

Biography

Löfling was born in Tolvfors Bruk, Gävle, Sweden. He studied at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

where he attended courses taught by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

. When the Spanish ambassador asked Linnaeus to select a botanist for service in the American colonies, the professor at once named Loefling. He went to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 1751 to learn Spanish, and then embarked with other scientists for

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

in February 1754. The

Treaty of Madrid (13 January 1750) The Spanish–Portuguese treaty of 1750 or Treaty of Madrid was a document signed in the Spanish capital by Ferdinand VI of Spain and John V of Portugal on 13 January 1750. The agreement aimed to end armed conflict over a border dispute betwee ...

had fixed the colonial borders of Spain and Portugal. In Cumaná,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

(then a Spanish colony) Löfling joined a project to demarcate the border with Brazil, the ''Expedicion de Limites al Orinoco''. He was put in charge of a natural history department evaluating the resources of the region. Assisted by two young Spanish doctors, he was involved in the expedition for the remainder of his life. He died in a remote mission San Antonio de Caroni, on the banks of the

Caroní River The Caroní River is the second most important river of Venezuela, the second in flow, and one of the longest, from the Kukenan tepui through to its confluence with the Orinoco River. The name "Caroní" is applied starting from the confluence ...

near the modern city of Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. His death was considered a great loss to natural history, and especially to botany. Linnæus believed the loss irreparable. The manuscripts of Löfling, which were found after his death, were preserved by his two assistants.

Legacy

In 1753, Linnæus used the name '' Loeflingia'' for the genus of some plants in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

, one species of which grows in Spain and the other in Spanish America. Then in 1923,

Sprague Sprague may refer to: Places ;Canada * Sprague, Manitoba, a small town near the Minnesota/Manitoba border ;United States * Sprague, Alabama, Montgomery County, Alabama * Sprague, Connecticut * Sprague, Missouri * Sprague, Nebraska * Sprague ...

published '' Pehria'', a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

from South America in family Lythraceae and also named after Löfling. LoeflingZoo CiudadGuayana 04

Parque Löefling in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela is named after him. The park includes a zoo.

Publications

Linnæus posthumously published his ''Iter Hispanicum, eller resa til Spanska Länderna uti Europa och America 1751 til 1756'' in 1758.

Notes

References

External links

Pehr Löfling. Polymath Virtual Library, Fundación Ignacio Larramendi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lofling, Pehr 18th-century Swedish botanists Swedish taxonomists 1729 births 1756 deaths Uppsala University alumni Age of Liberty people