Carlos Luigi Spegazzini
Carlos Luis Spegazzini or Luigi Carlo Spegazzini ( born April 20, 1858 in Bairo, Italy, † July 1, 1926 in La Plata, Argentina) was an Italian- Argentine botanist and mycologist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Speg. ". Previously was also the abbreviation " Spegazz. " In use.
Life and work
Education in Italy
Carlo Luigi Spegazzini completed his entire school and university education in Italy. From 1876 to 1879 he studied at the Royal School of Viticulture and Enology in Conegliano. Here he learned several foreign languages and specialized under the guidance of the famous Italian mycologist Pietro Andrea Saccardo to the study of fungi. In first releases he worked on parasitic fungi of grapevine and most fungi in Northern Italy.
Early years in Argentina
After completing his studies Spegazzini broke in 1879 to South America to collect there as scientists further experience. He reached after a layover in Brazil towards the end of Argentina. Here he took up a post as assistant at the Faculty of the Universidad de Buenos Aires Physical and Natural Sciences. In 1881 Spegazzini took part in the Italian- Argentine Bove expedition to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, on the hitherto unknown species he discovered in 1108 by plants and fungi. On this expedition he suffered at Cape Horn shipwreck and had his herbarium and the notes floating rescue on land. Spegazzini used the stay to study the culture and language of the indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego. Later he published a grammar of their language.
La Plata
After his return was Carlos Spegazzini Member of the Commission, the (later La Plata) chose the site for the newly founded capital of the province of Buenos Aires. In La Plata he settled down permanently in 1884 itself. He participated in the construction of the newly founded Universidad Nacional de La Plata, lectured at the faculties of natural sciences, agriculture, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and founded the Arboretum.
Carlos Spegazzini undertook in the aftermath more than 20 research trips through Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay. His personal herbarium contained about 4000 South American species of fungi, of which about half were new species. He was regarded in his day as one of the world's leading mycologists. In addition, Spegazzini also dealt intensively with vascular plants, of which he was able to describe about 1,000 new species.
In 1924 he published the magazine Revista Argentina de Botánica, but from the published only four issues.
Aftermath
Carlos Luis Spegazzini bequeathed his house 's collections, its library and scientific instruments from the University of La Plata with the requirement to establish a Botanical institute that would bear his name. The Institute Carlos Spegazzini was opened in 1930 and still exists today. Also the Botanical Museum of the University of La Plata bears his name since 1947.
After Carlos Luis Spegazzini several plant and fungal species have been named, including the cactus Rebutia spegazziniana. The Spegazzini Glacier in Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park and the town of Carlos Spegazzini in Greater Buenos Aires were also named after him.
Writings (selection )
- Fungi Fuegiani. , 1888.
- Fungi Argentini. In 1898.
- Flora de la provincia de Buenos Aires. In 1905.
- Cactacearum Platensium Tentamen. In: Anal del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires. Episode 3, Volume 4, 1905, pp. 477-521, (online).