Nils Hylander
| Nils Hylander | |
|---|---|
| Born |
24 October 1904 Norrköping |
| Died | 28 July 1970 (aged 65) Uppsala |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | botany, mycology |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Hyl. |
Nils Hylander (24 October 1904 in Norrköping – 28 July 1970 in Uppsala) was a Swedish botanist and mycologist. From November 1953 to his death he was curator of the Uppsla University Botanical Garden. He was appointed professor in 1967.
Hylander received his doctorate in botany at Uppsala University in June 1943. His thesis “Die Grassameneinkömmlinge Schwedischer Parke, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Hieracia silvaticiformia.”, deals with the plants that were introduced into Swedish parks and larger gardens in the late 1800s via foreign grass seed, including about 140 different subspecies of hawkweed (Hieracium). One of the objectives was to use these park hawkweeds to identify from which locations in Europe the grass seed originated.
His early interest in mycology gave rise to his 1953 publication, with others, of “Enumeratio Uredinearum Scandinavicarum”, a catalogue of rust fungi, but Hylander's greatest contribution was within Swedish vascular plant taxonomy, where he appears as one of the major figures of the twentieth century.
After much preliminary work the first part of “Nordisk kärlväxtflora”, the Nordic vascular plant flora, was published in 1953; the second followed in 1966. The flora, which was intended to be published in five parts, was largely a one-man job and work on it was sustained with great ambition. The two published parts deal with several major and difficult genera, where each species is described very fully in a highly compressed text. The Flora work entailed his own basic research, which involved a critical examination of herbarium material and literature and some experimental crops and field studies. Hylander's treatment of the Nordic vascular plants takes a modern approach and is characterized by deep insights concerning, for example, species variation in the field. The discursive parts that accompany the descriptions are of great value. The Nordic vascular plant flora can be considered as Hylander's most important work and is already an international standard work. There is a more or less finished manuscript of the third part. As preparation for the flora one can to some extent consider the 3rd (1941) and 4th (1955) editions, prepared by Hylander, of the “Förteckning över Skandinaviens växter”, Index of Scandinavian plants, part :1 Vascular Plants, published by Lund Botanical Association. These editions contained several significant novelties for Nordic floristics both in terms of nomenclature and systematics, as more fully discussed in an important work “Nomenklatorische und systematische Studien über nordische Gefässpflanzen” (1945). Hylander's great insights into Nordic vascular plant taxonomy led to several international assignments, including as a regional adviser for Flora Europaea.
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