Peter Olof Swartz

Peter Olof Swartz, also known as Olof Peter Swartz or Olavo Peter Swartz (Norrköping, September 21, 1760-Stockholm, 19 September 1818), was a Swedish botanist, mycologist, algologist, pteridologist and bryologist.

Biography

Se doctoró en la Universidad de Uppsala en 1781.

In 1780, at the age of 20, he traveled to Lapland in the company of other botanists. The result of this trip was a diary in which he described the landscapes, people, fauna and flora of the place. This diary is still unpublished.

In 1783, he left on a trip organized by the Swedish crown, to North America and the West Indies, to collect plant specimens, which lasted from 1783 to 1786.

In 1784, he arrived in Jamaica and during his 6-month stay, he was offered the position of botanist of the island, but Swartz declined this offer. After a brief visit to Cuba and Hispaniola he returned to Jamaica, where he remained until his departure back to Sweden in 1786.

His study in Jamaica focused on the mountainous part of the island. He collected and described many new species that had not been found by botanists who passed through here previously (Sloane, Brown or Jacquin). The result of this work is the Swartz Herbarium of some 6,000 specimens of phanerogams and ferns, mainly from the West Indies. This herbarium is found as a separate part within the Regnellian herbarium.

In 1791, professor of Bergian Botany at the Stockholm Academy of Sciences.

He is well known for his taxonomic studies and his work with pteridophytes (plants with spores), among his contributions are:

• description of the genus of the family Orchidaceae Stelis Sw. 1799.
• orchid species:
• Blood broughty
• Dendrobium nobile (described on gender Dendrobium in "Nova Acta Regiae")

Work

• Nova Genera et Species Plantarum seu Prodromus. 1788
• Observations botanicae, quibus plantae Indiae Occidentalis illustrantur. 1791
• Flora Indiae Occidentalis, 3 vols. 1797-1806

These three works were published as the results of his visit to the Caribbean.

• Icones plantarum incognitarum, 1794-1800
• "Nova Acta Regiae", Upsala. 1799
• Dispositio systematica muscorum frondosorum Swedene (1799, 9 tables)
• Synopsis Filicum. Bibliopolium novum academicum, Kiel 1806
• Lichenes amæericani (1811)
• Summa vegetabilium Scandinaviae. Stockholm, 1814

Eponyms

Gender

• (Caesalpiniaceae) Swartzia Schreb.
• (Fabaceae) Swartzia Schreb.
• (Solanaceae) Swartzia J.F.Gmel.

Species