Orvo Vitikainen (born 11 October 1940 in

Taipalsaari Taipalsaari is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the South Karelia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Ne ...

) is a Finnish lichenologist. He entered 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 ...

in 1961, from where he obtained a

Candidate of Philosophy Candidate of Philosophy can refer to the US degree or status of Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil. or Ph.C.) granted to Ph.D. students who have been accepted as candidates for that degree, or (as a direct translation) to degrees or former degrees at ...

degree in 1966, and a Licentiate of Philosophy in 1971. He later earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from this institution in 1994, under the supervision of

Teuvo Ahti Teuvo "Ted" Tapio Ahti (born 14 June 1934) is a Finnish botanist and lichenologist who has made significant contributions to the taxonomy and biogeography of lichens. Known particularly for his work on the lichen family Cladoniaceae, he has h ...

. Between the years 1961 and 1981 he was a junior

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

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 at the

University of Helsinki Botanical Garden The University of Helsinki Botanical Garden is an institution subordinate to the Finnish Museum of Natural History of the University of Helsinki, which maintains a collection of live plants for use in research and teaching. The Botanical Garden ...

, and then from 1983 to 2004 he was the head of the lichen

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

. Here he managed the internationally valuable collections of the early lichenologists

Erik Acharius Erik Acharius (10 October 1757 – 14 August 1819) was a Swedish botanist who pioneered the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of lichens and is known as the "father of lichenology". Acharius was famously the last pupil of Carl Linnaeus. Life Ac ...

and

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 ...

. He has collected thousands of specimens for the herbarium from various locations in Finland, but also internationally, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark,

Russian Karelia East Karelia (, ), also rendered as Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia, is a name for the part of Karelia that is beyond the eastern border of Finland and since the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 has remained Eastern Orthodox and a part of Russia. It ...

, Scotland, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro, Tanzania, Kenya,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, and Brazil. In 1992–1994, he was a scientist of the Finnish Academy in the Ahti research group. Vitikainen is an expert on the

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 ...

flora of Finland and northwest Europe, and also a specialist on the lichen genus ''

Peltigera ''Peltigera'' is a genus of approximately 100 species of foliose lichens in the family Peltigeraceae. Commonly known as the dog or pelt lichens, species of ''Peltigera'' are often terricolous (growing on soil), but can also occur on moss, trees ...

''. He contributed chapters on the families

Peltigeraceae The Peltigeraceae are a family of lichens in the order Peltigerales. The Peltigeraceae, which contains 15 genera and about 600 species, has recently (2018) been emended to include the families Lobariaceae and Nephromataceae. Many Peltigeraceae sp ...

and Nephromataceae for the popular 2007 work ''Nordic Lichen Flora''. He is also interested in the history of lichenology and has published several papers in this area. Vitikainen is honoured in the names of the lichens '' Atla vitikainenii'', '' Nephroma orvoi'', and '' Verrucaria vitikainenii''. He is described by his colleagues as "a modest, patient, friendly and industrious colleague", and "an important joint in the great chain of lichenological tradition in Finland".

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitikainen, Orvo 1940 births Living people Finnish lichenologists People from Taipalsaari University of Helsinki alumni 20th-century Finnish scientists 21st-century Finnish scientists Finnish taxonomists