Carl Emil Hansen Ostenfeld (born Carl Emil Ostenfeld-Hansen) (3 August 1873 – 16 January 1931) was a Danish

systematic Systematic may refer to: Science * Short for systematic error * Systematic fault * Systematic bias, errors that are not determined by chance but are introduced by an inaccuracy (involving either the observation or measurement process) inheren ...

botanist. He graduated from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

under professor

Eugenius Warming Eugenius (died 6 September 394) was a usurper in the Western Roman Empire (392–394) against Emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious policies targetin ...

. He was a keeper at the Botanical Museum 1900–1918, when he became professor of

botany Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "bot ...

at the

Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University ( da, Kongelige Veterinær- og Landbohøjskole, abbr. KVL) was a veterinary medicine, veterinary and agricultural science university in Denmark. It was founded in 1856 and operated until 2007, when ...

. In 1923, by the early retirement of Raunkiær's, Ostenfeld became professor of botany at the University of Copenhagen and director of the

Copenhagen Botanical Garden The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden ( da, Botanisk have), usually referred to simply as Copenhagen Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers an area of 10 hectares and is particularly ...

, both positions held until his death in 1931. He was a member of the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

and served on the board of directors of the

Carlsberg Foundation Carlsberg Foundation ( da, Carlsbergfondet) was founded by J. C. Jacobsen in 1876, by allocating some of his shares in the Carlsberg Brewery to fund and operate the Carlsberg Laboratory and the Museum of National History at Frederiksborg Palac ...

. Ostenfeld is known as an explorer of the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

, including

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

, as well as the flora of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

. Ostenfeld participated in the

Ingolf expedition HDMS ''Ingolf'' was a Danish schooner-rigged steam gunboat build in iron and launched in 1876. ''Ingolf'' marks a transition between the traditional gunships with muzzle-loading cannons placed along the sides of the ship and modern breechloading ...

(1885-86) to the waters around

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...

, and in 1911 in the

International Phytogeographic Excursion The International Phytogeographic Excursions was a series of international meetings in plant geography that significantly contributed to exchange of scientific ideas across national and linguistic barriers and also to the rise of Anglo-American plan ...

to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles (O ...

. The party studied the flora of parts of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, including

Killarney Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross ...

Connemara Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, w ...

and

The Burren The Burren (; ) is a karst/glaciokarst landscape centred in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland.
Burre ...

. In collaboration with O. Rosenberg, he was one of the first to confirm that some plants could form asexual seeds, now called (

apomixis In botany, apomixis is asexual reproduction without fertilization. Its etymology is Greek for "away from" + "mixing". This definition notably does not mention meiosis. Thus "normal asexual reproduction" of plants, such as propagation from cutt ...

). Their experiments repeated those of

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel wa ...

with

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

hybrids, showing that Mendel had observed a mixture of sexual recombination and apomixis.

Honours

About a dozen plant species are named after him. Also some geographical features in

bear names that commemorate him: *

C.H. Ostenfeld Land CH, Ch, cH, or ch may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Television channel (sometimes abbreviated as "ch." for television and cable stations) * ''Chaos;Head'', a video game * '' Clone Hero'', a clone game version of popular rhythm game series '' ...

in Northeast Greenland * C.H. Ostenfeld Nunatak in Wordie's Glacier, Northeast Greenland *

C.H. Ostenfeld Glacier C. H. Ostenfeld Glacier ( da, C. H. Ostenfeld Gletscher), is one of the major glaciers in northern Greenland. This glacier was first mapped by Lauge Koch in 1917 during Knud Rasmussen's 1916-1918 Second Thule Expedition to north Greenland and ...

Victoria Fjord Victoria Fjord, also known as Victoria Inlet, is a large fjord in northern Greenland. Its eastern shore forms the western limit of Peary Land. Geography To the northwest the fjord opens into the Lincoln Sea of the Arctic Ocean. Wulff Land forms ...

, Northwest Greenland The

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...

awarded him the Prix Desmazières for 1917.

Selected scientific works

*Ostenfeld, C.H. & Johannes Schmidt (1901) Plankton fra det Røde Hav og Adenbugten. Videnskabelige meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening 1901: 141–182. * Gelert, O. & Ostenfeld, C.H. (1902) Flora Arctica - containing description of the flowering plants and ferns, found in the Arctic regions, with their distribution in these countries, illustrated by numerous figures in the text. **Part 1. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledones.

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, 1902
Full text
*Ostenfeld, C.H. (1904) Weitere Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Fruchtentwicklung bei der Gattung ''Hieracium''. Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 22:537–541 *Ostenfeld CH, Rosenberg O (1906) Experimental and cytological studies in the Hieracia. I. Castration and hybridization experiments with some species of Hieracia. Botanisk Tidsskrift 27:225–248 *Ostenfeld, C.H. (1908) On the immigration of ''Biddulphia sinensis'' Grev. and its occurrence in the North Sea during 1903-1907 and on its use for the study of the direction and rate of flow of the currents. Meddelelser fra Kommissionen for Danmarks Fiskeri- og Havundersøgelser: Serie Plankton 1 (6): 1-44. *Ostenfeld, C.H. &

C.G. Johannes Petersen Carl Georg Johannes Petersen (24 October 1860 – 11 May 1928) was a Danish marine biologist, especially fisheries biologist. He was the first to describe communities of benthic marine invertebrates and is often considered a founder of modern fishe ...

(1908) On the Ecology and Distribution of the Grass-Wrack (

Zostera marina ''Zostera marina'' is a flowering vascular plant species as one of many kinds of seagrass, with this species known primarily by the English name of eelgrass with seawrack much less used, and refers to the plant after breaking loose from the submer ...

) in Danish Waters. Copenhagen, Centraltrykkeriet, 62 p. Series: The Danish Biological Station vol. 16. *Ostenfeld CH (1910) Further studies on the apogamy and hybridization of the Hieracia. Zeitschrif ind Abst und Vererb 3:241–285 *Ostenfeld, C.H. & Ove Paulsen (1910–1911) Marine plankton from the East-Greenland Sea (W. of 6° W. Long, and N. of 73° 30’ N. Lat.): collected by the

Danmark Expedition The Denmark expedition ( da, Danmark-ekspeditionen), also known as the Denmark Expedition to Greenland's Northeast Coast, and as the Danmark Expedition after the ship, was an expedition to the northeast of Greenland in 1906–1908. Despite being ...

1906–1908.

Meddelelser om Grønland ''Meddelelser om Grønland'' ("''Communications on Greenland''") is a Danish scientific periodical which publishes scientific results from all fields of research on Greenland. It was established by Frederik Johnstrup and published as a single ser ...

bd. 43 (11). **I : List of diatoms and flagellates / by C.H. Ostenfeld. 1910 **II : Protozoa / by C.H. Ostenfeld. 1910 **III : Peridiniales / by Ove Paulsen. 1910 **IV : General remarks on the microplankton / by C.H. Ostenfeld and Ove Paulsen. 1911
Ostenfeld, C. E. H. 1912. Some remarks on the International Phytogeographic Excursion in the British Isles

New Phytologist ''New Phytologist'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published on behalf of the New Phytologist Foundation by Wiley-Blackwell. It was founded in 1902 by botanist Arthur Tansley, who served as editor until 1931. Topics covered ''New Phytolo ...

, 11: 114–127.
Ostenfeld, C. H. (1912) Experiments on the Origin of Species in the Genus Hieracium (Apogamy and Hybridism). New Phytologist 11 (9): 347-354.
* Ostenfeld, C. H. (1915) Plants collected during the First

Thule Expedition Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies ...

to the northernmost Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland, 51 (10)
Ostenfeld, C. H. (1915) Ruppia anomala sp. nov., an Aberrant Type of the Potamogetonaceae. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 42 (12): 659-662
* Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1916) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part I: Introduction, The sea-grasses of West Australia.

Dansk Botanisk Arkiv ''Dansk Botanisk Arkiv'' was a Danish scientific journal or monograph series concerning botany, issued by the Danish Botanical Society. It was published from 1913 to 1980. Articles were written in Danish, German, English and French. The synonym Re ...

, 2(6): 1-44 * Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1918a) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part II: Stray notes from the tropical West Australia. Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, 2(8) : 1-29 * Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1918b) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part II: A revision of the West Australian species of Triglochin, Crassula (Tillaea) and Frankenia. Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, 2(8) : 30-55 * Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1921) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part III : Additions and notes to the flora of extra-tropical W. Australia. Biologiske Meddelelser,

Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

, 3(2): 1-144 * Ostenfeld, C. H. (1923) Critical Notes on the Taxonomy and Nomenclature of Some Flowering Plants from Northern Greenland (II Thule Expedition 1916–1918). Meddelelser om Grønland, 64 * Ostenfeld, C. H. (1923) Flowering Plants and Ferns from Wolstenholme Sound (ca. 76°30' N. Lat.) and Two Plant Lists from

Inglefield Gulf Inglefield Gulf or Inglefield Fjord ( da, Inglefield Bredning; kl, Kangerlussuaq) is a fjord in northwestern Greenland. To the west, the fjord opens into the Baffin Bay. Administratively it belongs to the Avannaata municipality. Inglefield Gulf ...

and

Inglefield Land Inglefield Land is an unglaciated area along the northwestern coast of Greenland. It was named after English explorer Edward Augustus Inglefield. History Inglefield Land is noted for its archaeological sites, which show evidence of occupation by ...

(77°28' and 79°10' N. Lat.) (II Thule Expedition 1916–1918). Meddelelser om Grønland, 64: 189-206 * Ostenfeld, C. H. (1924) The Vegetation of the North-Coast of Greenland. Based upon the late Dr. Th. Wulff's collections and observations (II Thule Expedition 1916–1918). Meddelelser om Grønland, 64: 221-268
Ostenfeld, C.H. (1925) Vegetation of North Greenland. Botanical Gazette 80 (2): 213-218.

Ostenfeld, C. H. (1925) Some Remarks on Species and Chromosomes. American Naturalist 59 (662): 217-218.
* Ostenfeld, C.H. (1926) The flora of Greenland and its origin. Biologiske Meddelelser, Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 6, 1-71 * Ostenfeld, C.H. (1931) The distribution within Denmark of the higher plants Results of the topographic-botanical investigation. 1: A brief historical survey of the investigation. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter, Naturvidenskabelig og Mathematisk Afd., 9. Række, 3(1) * Ostenfeld, C.H. &

Johannes Grøntved Johannes Grøntved (25 January 1882 – 11 July 1956) was a Danish botanist. He made investigations of flora and vegetation in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Estonia. He was editor of The Botany of Iceland from vol. 3 part 2. ...

(1934) The Flora of

and the Færoes. Copenhagen, 1934

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostenfeld, Carl H. Botanists active in the Arctic Botanists active in Australia Ostenfeldt, C.H. University of Copenhagen faculty University of Copenhagen alumni 1873 births 1931 deaths People from Randers