Peter Nielsen (28 July 1829 – 30 September 1897) was a Danish

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 plant pathologist. He was born at a farm in Vonsbæk parish in the

Duchy of Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been div ...

. He graduated in 1857 from Jelling Statsseminarium in Vejle. He was employed at Flakkebjerg Institute from 1857-1859. In 1859, he became a school teacher at Ørslev in

Zealand Zealand ( ) is the largest and most populous islands of Denmark, island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size) at 7,031 km2 (2715 sq. mi.). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 Januar ...

, where he studied the local

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 ...

. He was particularly interested in plants useful to agriculture and in plant pathogens. He was a prolific writer on these topics. He undertook meticulous studies of rust fungi. He was the first to describe the host alternation of Puccinia poarum between grasses and '' Tussilago farfara''. He issued 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 ...

''Exsiccatsamling af Characeer navnlig fra Danmark utgivne af P. Nielsen''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Peter 1829 births 1897 deaths People from the Duchy of Schleswig 19th-century Danish botanists Danish mycologists Danish phytopathologists 19th-century Danish educators