Gunnar Marklund (1892-1964)
Dr. Gunnar Marklund served 1941-1959 as the Head Curator of the
Botanical Museum of the University of Helsinki (Finland). He was an eminent taxonomist of
the 1900's, with the main interest in apomictic plant groups.
As with many other notable scientists, the talents of
Marklund were obvious already at the age of schoolboy. However, at first he was to work
as a school teacher of biology and geography for about two decades. Such a
career, at least at the beginning, was usual in those times with people who
already were or were to become competent botanists and zoologists. During that
time he wrote a popular school-book on biology.
Fortunately he had energy enough to proceed with scientific
work besides the teaching duties. He became Ph. D. in 1936. During spring and
early summer he actively collected and studied the genus Taraxacum which
mostly comprises apomictic species. These studied resulted in two major
publications, treating the species of Estonia or southernmost Finland,
respectively.
Following the nomination as the Head Curator of the Botanical
Museum Dr. Marklund was able to devote himself to taxonomic and collecting work. He was
interested in many groups of vascular plants, and published contributions
on e.g. Epilobium, Mentha, Odontites and Potentilla. However, the most
important of his contributions are those treating the Ranunculus auricomus group.
Like the taraxacums, these plants flower in springtime and reproduce
apomictically. He collected an enormous material of Ranunculus in his
trips. This work resulted in two major contributions published in the 1960's,
the latter of them posthumously. The numerous taxa (then as 'apomictic subspecies', now
treated as apomictic species) in these papers were almost invariably new to
science and described by him.
Dr. Marklund was known as a diligent collector of very carefully
prepared plant specimens. He also worked hard in the herbarium. He was the last
head (or anybody of the staff) of the museum who had time and, above all, the
capacity ('the eye of taxonomist') to check and rename, if needed, all the vascular
plant accessions from Finland. As a schoolboy Harri Harmaja, e.g., was lucky enough to get
that experience: a few days after you had left a critical plant for
identification, you got back your specimen provided with a determination label
with the correct name written in his regular handwriting.
Dr. Harmaja has personal memories of Dr. Marklund only after
the retirement of the latter.
When a schoolboy and fresh student in the early 1960's he sometimes visited
Marklund's work room at the building of the Botanical Museum with plants to be
identified. Kindly enough, besides naming the specimens, Dr. Marklund had time
to teach how to know
the apomictic taxa of the Ranunculus auricomus group and Taraxacum, the
varieties of Mentha ×gentilis, or Epilobium glandulosum s.
auct. (= E. fransiscanum?) which he freshly had reported as new to
Finland. Some collections of Harmaja were cited in his last papers dealing with
these plants. The collections of Harmaja also included at least one
new taxon of the R. auricomus group but Dr. Marklund had not time left to treat
them further.
The character of Gunnar Marklund has been described with
the adjectives kind, polite and modest. Harmaja can confirm this: such was
indeed his attitude also towards a rookie botanist.
Die Taraxacum-Flora Estlands. – Acta Bot. Fennica 23: 1-150. 1938.
Die Taraxacum-Flora Nylands. – Acta Bot. Fennica 26: 1-187. 1940.
Der Ranunculus auricomus -Komplex in Finnland. I. – Flora Fennica 3: 1-128, Taf.
1-94. 1961.
Der Ranunculus auricomus -Komplex in Finnland. II. – Flora Fennica 4: 1-198
(Taf. 1-94). 1965.
Created December 19, 2000. Latest revision November 17, 2007.