Erik Acharius

Erik Acharius (* October 10, 1757 in Gävle, † August 14 1819 in Vadstena ) was a Swedish physician and botanist. He dealt with braids and is considered the founder of Lichenology. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Oh. ".

Life and work

Acharius studied from 1773 at the University of Uppsala in Carl Linnaeus. He moved to Stockholm in 1778 and got a job at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, where he was scientific articles.

In 1782 he moved to Lund to place at the university there be examinations in medicine. Acharius was appointed in connection to the doctor to have but without a doctorate. After several years as a practicing physician in Skåne Acharius was named 1785 Physician of the city Landskrona. In 1789 he was Provincial Medical Officer of Östergötland and 1795 head of the new Kurhaus in Vadstena. There he received in 1803 the powers of a professor.

Among his works are publications on the systematics of lichens as " Lichenographiae suecicae prodromus " (Linköping 1798). He completed and modified the lichen systematics in the scriptures: " Methodus, qua omnes detectos lichens ad genera redigere tentavit " ( Stockholm 1803, Hamburg 1805, 2 parts ); " Lichenographia universalis " ( Göttingen, 1810); " Synopsis methodica lichenum " (Lund 1814).

Achenarius created several still common scientific terms, including the term apothecium.

After Acharius named taxa

The Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg named in his honor, the genus of the plant family Acharia the Achariaceae.

Several plant species such as Pink acharii and Conferva acharii and the butterfly Tortrix achariana are named after him.