Peter Forsskål

Peter Forsskål, also Pehr Forsskål, Peter Forskaol, Peter Forskål or Pehr Forsskåhl, ( born January 11, 1732 in Helsinki, † July 11, 1763 in Jerim in Yemen ) was a Swedish / Finnish naturalist and orientalist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Forssk. ".

Life

He studied at the University of Uppsala / Sweden and was a pupil of Linnaeus, then in Göttingen by Johann David Michaelis.

From 1761 he took part in operations financed by the Danish king Arabia expedition together with Carsten Niebuhr and other scientists. In Egypt and Yemen, he collected and described a variety of plants and animals. There he died in 1763 from malaria.

Carsten Niebuhr in 1767 returned back as the only survivor of the expedition to Copenhagen and published the collected data and documentation of the expedition. These included Forsskåls works 1775 as Descriptiones Animalium - published Avium, amphiborum, insectorum, vermium quae in itinere orientali observavit Peter Forskål. In the same year a list of the plants of Yemen and Lower Egypt appeared: Flora Ægyptiaco Arabica immersive descriptiones plantarum quas per Ægyptum Inferiorem et Arabiam felicem detexit, illustravit Peter Forskål.

Named after Forsskål taxa

The plant genus Forsskaolea L. has been named after him, as well as the type Sansevieria forskaoliana.

Works

• Carsten Niebuhr (eds.): Flora ægyptiaco - arabica: Immersive Descriptiones plantarum, quas by Egyptum inferiorem et Arabiam felicem detexit, illustravit Peter Forskål ... Post mortem auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. Accedit tabula Arabiae felicis geographico - botanica. Ex officina moelleri, 1775, p.219 ( digitized in the Google Book Search ).
• Carsten Niebuhr (eds.): Icones rerum naturalium. Ex officina moelleri, 1776 ( digitized in the Google Book Search ).
• Carsten Niebuhr (eds.): Descriptiones animalium: avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium. Ex officina moelleri, 1776, p.183 ( digitized in the Google Book Search ).