Svante Samuel Murbeck


Svante Samuel Murbeck was a Swedish professor, botanist, pteridologist and explorer.

Biography

Murbeck was born in the parish of Hardeberga in Skåne County, Sweden.
While studying at Lund University, Murbeck undertook a successful field trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina before receiving his PhD in geology and botany in 1891. That same year he was made a lecturer at the university. He took up a position as curator of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and from 1897 until 1902 he worked for the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences at Alnarp. Murbeck returned to Lund University to become professor of botany and director of the Botaniska trädgården from 1902-24. Murbeck became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1907 and the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala in 1911.
Murbeck also published important studies in morphology, histology and embryology.
He made important contributions to knowledge of the flora of North Africa, writing several articles and books, including Contributions a la connaissance de la flore du nord-ouest de I'Afrique et plus specialement de la Tunisie.

Books

The plant taxa Calendula murbeckii, Centaurea murbeckii, Colymbada murbeckii, Mariana murbeckii, Onopordum murbeckii, Bufonia murbeckii, Cerastium murbeckii, Aspidium murbeckii, Gentiana murbeckii and Juncus murbeckii are named after him.

Botanical authority

The abbreviation Murb. is used to indicate Svante Samuel Murbeck as an authority on the description and scientific classification of plants. For a list of the 423 species described by the author, see IPNI.