Sylvia Anita Edlund (August 15, 1945 – November 15, 2014) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

botanist. '' Festuca edlundiae,'' commonly known as Edlund's fescue, a high arctic grass, was named in her honour for her extensive contributions to Arctic field work.

Life

She was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, of Swedish heritage, and grew up there and in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. Edlund earned a BSc from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

and a

PhD 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 ...

in botany from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Before she began field work, Edlund was often ill and was frequently confined to bed as a child. She said that she took up botany because she thought that she "shouldn't study anything I'd have to chase". She began work with a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

team tasked with producing an inventory of plants and animals in the far north. She worked in the Canadian Arctic for the

Geological Survey of Canada The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC; , CGC) is a Canadian federal government agency responsible for performing geological surveys of the country developing Canada's natural resources and protecting the environment. A branch of the Earth Science ...

(GSC) from 1974 to 1994, when she was forced to retire due to a problem with an inflamed appendix which was not diagnosed in time and wound up affecting her short-term memory. In 1994 she co-edited 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 ...

-like series of voucher slides with the title ''Americanarum Diatomarum exsiccata'' Edlund was an expert on plant distribution patterns in the Arctic. She also published a book on ''Common arctic wildflowers of the Northwest Territories'' which she illustrated with her own watercolours. Edlund made extensive collections of plants across the Canadian Arctic. More than 5,000 of these collections are housed in the National Herbarium of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature. At the end of her professional career, she managed the High Arctic Global Change Observatory for the GSC. After retiring, she became a volunteer working with people with disabilities in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and on

Gabriola Island Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about and a resi ...

in British Columbia. She earned a master's degree in Therapeutic Counselling from the Open International University for Complementary Medicines in 2003. She died in

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. "The Harbour City" was previously known as the "Hub City", which was attributed to its original layout design with streets radiating fr ...

from

sepsis Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...

and kidney failure at the age of 69.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edlund, Sylvia 1945 births 2014 deaths Canadian people of Swedish descent 20th-century Canadian botanists University of Chicago alumni Case Western Reserve University alumni 21st-century Canadian women scientists 20th-century Canadian women scientists Deaths from sepsis Canadian women botanists 21st-century Canadian botanists