Johan Petter Norrlin (6 September 1842 in Hollola – 7 January 1917 in Helsinki) was a Finnish

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 ...

and a professor of botany 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 ...

from 1879 to 1903. He was a pioneer of

plant geography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...

in Finland, and is also well known for his work on

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s and on the

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

of the

apomictic In botany, apomixis is asexual reproduction, asexual development of seed or embryo without Fertilisation, fertilization. However, other definitions include replacement of the seed by a plantlet or replacement of the flower by bulbils. Apomictic ...

taxa of the plant genera ''

Hieracium ''Hieracium'' (), known by the common name hawkweed and classically as (from ancient Greek ἱέραξ, 'hawk'), is a genus of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, and closely related to dandelion (''Taraxacum''), chicory (''Cichorium''), ...

'' and ''

Pilosella ''Pilosella'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It includes approximately 250 species native to temperate Eurasia and northwestern Africa. Some sources include it within the genus ''Hieracium''. Species , Plants of the Wor ...

''.

Early life and education

Johan Petter Norrlin was born on 6 September 1842 in

Hollola Hollola () is a municipality of Finland, located in the western part of the Päijänne Tavastia region. The municipality is unilingually Finnish and has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . ...

, Finland. Norrlin's parents were Nils Nathanael Norrlin and Fredrika Charlotta Lang. He became a student in 1862 at Porvoo high school, and graduated in 1866 as a

forester A forester is a person who practises forest management and forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Fores ...

from Evo Forestry College. Norrlin then studied at the

. It was around this time that he met

Edvard August Vainio Edvard August Vainio (born Edvard Lang; 5 August 185314 May 1929) was a Finnish lichenology, lichenologist. His early works on the lichens of Lapland (Finland), Lapland, his three-volume monograph on the lichen genus ''Cladonia'', and, in part ...

(then named Edvard Lang), the neighbour's son, who was nearly 11 years younger. Young Edvard Lang often accompanied Norrlin on his botanical excursions around

Lake Vesijärvi A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a depression (geology), basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land an ...

in the summers of 1868 and 1869, helping him collect samples of plants and

cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name ''Cryptogamae'') is a plant, in the broad sense of the word, or a plant-like organism that share similar characteristics, such as being multicellular, photosynthetic, and primarily immobile, that reproduces via sp ...

s (

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es and

s). Due to Norrlin's influence, Vainio chose to study botany at university, and his first publications were about plant geography and

floristics Floristics is the study of plants of geographical regions. It is a branch of phytogeography, which technically makes it a branch of botany, geography, and a subbranch of biogeography. Harvard University has a history of research with early contr ...

; Vainio would later become a world-renowned lichenologist. In 1873, Norrlin married Lang's sister. Johan Peter Norrlin

Norrlin graduated with a bachelor's and

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in philosophy in 1869 and a licentiate and

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in philosophy in 1879. This gave him the qualifications to become a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

. Norrlin was an associate professor at the University of Helsinki from 1879 to 1903. Norrlin was

William Nylander William Andrew Michael Junior Nylander Altelius (born 1 May 1996) is a Swedish professional ice hockey Forward (ice hockey), forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nylander was selected by the Maple Leafs in t ...

's foremost student, and he became the first expert on Finnish

s. He was primarily active as a lichen collector, plant geographer and ''

'' researcher. While travelling in different parts of Finland and Lapland, he discovered a large number of interesting or new species that would be

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

by Nylander. Together with Nylander, he published 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 ...

''Herbarium lichenum Fenniae'' (1875–1882). Later on he published two exsiccatae with ''Hieracium'' and ''Pilosella'' species.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The works ''Bidrag till sydöstra Tavastlands Flora'' and ''Flora Kareliae Onegensis I'' (1871) are examples of Finnish plant geography research in terms of plant

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. Norrlin was instrumental in developing the

biogeographic Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

divisions of East

Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and ; ), or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is a peninsula in Europe which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Scandinavian and Kola Peninsula, Kola peninsulas, mainland ...

. He showed that Aunus,

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

and the Kola Peninsula belong to the Finnish natural science area (even though they are geographically in Russia), a conclusion that was later verified with geological surveys. He was named honorary member of the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica in 1912.

Legacy

Norrlin developed a system called the Norrlin Scale to classify plant prevalence. In this ten-grade scale, the first seven grades (1, 2 = sparse; 3, 4 = scattered; 5, 6, 7 = abundant/plenty) are based on distances (=density) between the individuals of each species, while the upper three grades (8–10) relate to the admixture of other species, overall between 7.5 species (=grade 8) and one species (=grade 10). According to Finnish conservationist and teacher Reino Kalliola, Norrlin's work laid the foundation for future studies of Finnish phytogeography. His ideas were used in the later work of

Aimo Kaarlo Cajander Aimo Kaarlo Cajander (4 April 1879 – 21 January 1943) was the Prime Minister of Finland up to the Winter War. Cajander was born in Uusikaupunki, and became a botanist, a professor of forestry 1911–34; director-general for Finland's Fores ...

, and by phytogeographers of future generations. The

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

lists 638 species that were named by Norrlin. The botanical periodical ''Norrlinia'' is named after Norrlin. It is a publication series of the Botanical Museum of the

Finnish Museum of Natural History The Finnish Museum of Natural History (, ), established in 1988, is a research institution under the University of Helsinki in Finland, based in Helsinki, Finland. It is a natural history museum responsible for the national botanical, zoological, ...

at the University of Helsinki. Norrlin is also honoured in the lichen genus name '' Norrlinia'' , the lichen species '' Physcia norrlinii'' , '' Porina norrlinii'' , '' Roesleria norrlinii'' , '' Verrucaria norrlinii'' , and the plant '' Hieracium norrlinii'' .

Selected publications

*1870. Bidrag till Sydöstra Tavastlands flora (Contribuciones a la flora del sudeste Häme). 123 pp. *1875. Flora Kareliae onegensis: Lichenes. 46 pp. *1891. Minnesord öfver Sextus Otto Lindberg. Acta Societatis scientiarum Fennicae. Ed. Societas scientiarum Fennicae. 36 pp. *1895. Pilosellæ boreales: præcipue floræ fennicæ novæ. Volume
12
y 14 de Acta Societatis pro fauna et flora Fennica. 83 pp. *1906
Suomen keltanot.
154 pp. (Finnish language) *1912. Nya nordiska Hieracia beskrifna af J. P. Norrlin *1923. Lectio praecursoria. Volumen 23 de Acta forestalia Fennica. *1913. Minnesord öfver professor William Nylander, af J. P. Norrlin. Volumen 44 de Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae. Ed. Finska litteratursällskapets tryckeri. 43 pp.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norrlin, Johan Petter 1842 births 1917 deaths Scientists from the Grand Duchy of Finland 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 19th-century Finnish botanists Finnish taxonomists Academic staff of the University of Helsinki 20th-century Finnish botanists University of Helsinki alumni People from Hollola