Alicia Lourteig (1913–2003) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

and French botanist, world specialist in

Oxalidaceae The Oxalidaceae, or wood sorrel family, are a small family of five genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees, with the great majority of the 570 species in the genus ''Oxalis'' (wood sorrels). Members of this family typically have divid ...

Personal life and education

Alicia Lourteig was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina. Her parents originated from France and Argentina. She studied pharmacy and biochemistry at university in Buenos Aires, and her doctorate was awarded in 1946.

Career

Despite the subjects she studied at university, Lourteig's career was as a botanist, particularly as a taxonomist of the

Lythraceae Lythraceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants, including 32 genus, genera, with about 620 species of Herbaceous plant, herbs, shrubs, and trees. The larger genera include ''Cuphea'' (275 spp.), ''Lagerstroemia'' (56), ''Nesaea (pl ...

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (, buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family (biology), family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 spec ...

Mayacaceae ''Mayaca'' is a genus of flowering plants, often placed in its own family, the Mayacaceae (or Mayaceae in earlier systems). In the APG II system of 2003, it is assigned to the order Poales in the clade commelinids. The Cronquist system, of 1981, ...

and

. Her interests extended to the history of botany in South America and the Antilles. She was employed as a botanist from 1938 until 1947 at the Miguel Lillo Institute within the University of Tucuman. She then moved to the Darwinion Botanic Institute in San Isidro. She was able to visit other herbaria in America and Europe. These included the

Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

, UK (1948 to 1950) and herbaria in Stockholm (1950-1951), Copenhagen (1951), Boston (1952-1953) and Washington (1953). In 1955 she was recruited by the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

so moved to join the

National Museum of Natural History, France The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the ...

as curator of the New World botanic collection. She contributed to the supplement of the ''Flore de France'' by Hippolyte Coste and revisions of the

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

. She organised collections made by Aimé Bonpland (1773-1858), José Celestino Mutis (1732-1808), Surian and Charles Plumier (1646-1704) that were in the Paris museum. She became a research associate at the museum in 1979. Lourteig collected plant materials in South America and also collected in the French Antarctic in 1963-1964 and 1969. She was editor of the journal ''Lilloa''.

Publications

Lourteig was the author or co-author of over 200 publications. Some of her most significant publications are: * Piedrahita, SD; A Lourteig. (1991) ''Genesis De Una Flora''. Ed. Academia Colombiana de Ciências Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales. 334 pp. * Lourteig, A. (1963) ''Flora del Uruguay, Mayacaceae, Zygophyllaceae, Celastraceae, Lythraceae, Primulaceae''. Mus. Nac de Hist. Nat., Montevideo. 38 pp. 14 planchas * Lourteig, A. (1956) Ranunculaceas de Sudamérica tropical pp. 19–88. ''Memoria, Soc. Ciências Naturales La Salle''. 16: 43. Caracas * Lourteig, A; CA O'Donell. (1955) Las celastráceas de Argentina y Chile. BA : ''Ministério de Agricultura y Ganadería'', ''Serie: Publicación técnica'', 15, pp 52 * Lourteig, A; CA O'Donell. (1943) Euphoriaceae of Argentina. Phyllantheae, Dalechampieae, Cluytiae, Manihoteae. ''Lilloa'' IX * Lourteig, A; CA O'Donell. (1942) Acalypheae of Argentina (Euphorbiaceae) ''Lilloa'' VIII.

Awards

* In 1999, the Millennium Award for lifetime achievement was presented to her at the XVI International Botanical Congress * Lac Alicia in Australia Island, one of the

Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most i ...

in French Antarctica is named after her * a footpath in one of the Serro de Mar bio reserves in Brazil is named after her * about 20 plant genera and species are named after her, including ''Alicia'' from the

Malpighiaceae Malpighiaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales. It comprises about 73 genera and 1315 species, all of which are native to the tropics and subtropics. About 80% of the genera and 90% of the species occur in the New World ( ...

family, '' Lourteigia'' (from the

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

family), and also '' Lourtella'' from the family

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lourteig, Alicia 1913 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Argentine botanists 20th-century French botanists Argentine women botanists Argentine women scientists French women botanists French women scientists Scientists from Buenos Aires 20th-century Argentine women scientists 20th-century Argentine women writers 20th-century Argentine writers 20th-century French women writers 20th-century French writers Argentine emigrants to France University of Buenos Aires alumni