Morten Wormskjold
Encyclopedia
Morten Wormskjold was a Danish
botanist
and explorer. He collected plants in Greenland
and Kamchatka.
to a recently nobilitated
family of civil servants in the Danish
state administration. He received private tuition and graduated in law in 1805. He then studied botany
under professor J. W. Hornemann
at the University of Copenhagen
. In 1807, he accompanied Hornemann
and the Norwegian
botanist
Christen Smith
on a trip to Norway
to collect plant specimens to support descriptions and form the basis of illustrations intended for the grand plate work Flora Danica
, at that time edited by Hornemann
. The two Danes had to leave Norway
due to the Napoleonic Wars
and no specimens seems to have been preserved from the trip.
collection trip to Greenland
via Leith
near Edinburgh
. The mineralogist
Karl Ludwig Giesecke
was meant to be his local contact. The vessel, “Freden”, was delayed for a month in Leith
, which time Wormskjold used to follow lectures in geology
by Robert Jameson
and Daniel Rutherford
. He also got acquainted with Ninian Imrie and Thomas Allan
, who had bought a party of minerals shipped by Giesecke
, but confiscated by the Royal Navy
. During his stay in Greenland, he made observations and collections of molluscs and plants. His observations were communicated in letters and his Botanisk Journal only published in 1889 by Eugenius Warming
. He had found 157 species of vascular plants, which more than doubled the known number.
n expedition on the circumnavigational expeditionary ship Rurik commanded by Otto von Kotzebue
. The other naturalists in the crew were the poet and botanist
Adelbert von Chamisso
and the physician and zoologist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz
. For some reason, he a captain Kotzebue
fell out and Wormskjold left the expedition in Petropavlovsk
on Kamchatka in 1816. He remained there for the next two years, collecting many specimens, and left in 1818. However, due to misfortune –a devastating fire – almost all specimens were destroyed. Some are preserved at the University of Oslo
.
After his return, he gave up natural history and lived with relatives. He died at Gavnø Castle.
shortly before he - as the first Dane - completed his circumnavigation
. The marine green alga Urospora wormskioldii
(Mart in Honem.
) Rosenv.
, the flowering plant
genus Wormskioldia Thonn.
(Turneraceae
) and several other species are named for him, e.g. Trifolium wormskioldii
and Veronica wormskjoldii
.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and explorer. He collected plants in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and Kamchatka.
Early life
Morten Wormskjold was born in CopenhagenCopenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to a recently nobilitated
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
family of civil servants in the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
state administration. He received private tuition and graduated in law in 1805. He then studied botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
under professor J. W. Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann was a Danish botanist.-Biography:He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica was given to Hornemann, who subsequently issued fasc. 22-39 with a total of 1080...
at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
. In 1807, he accompanied Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann was a Danish botanist.-Biography:He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica was given to Hornemann, who subsequently issued fasc. 22-39 with a total of 1080...
and the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
Christen Smith
Christen Smith (botanist)
Christen Smith was a Norwegian physician, economist and naturalist, particularly botanist.-Early years:...
on a trip to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to collect plant specimens to support descriptions and form the basis of illustrations intended for the grand plate work Flora Danica
Flora Danica
A product of The Age of Enlightenment, Flora Danica is a comprehensive atlas of botany, containing folio-sized pictures of all the wild plants native to Denmark, in the period from 1761-1883....
, at that time edited by Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann was a Danish botanist.-Biography:He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica was given to Hornemann, who subsequently issued fasc. 22-39 with a total of 1080...
. The two Danes had to leave Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
due to the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
and no specimens seems to have been preserved from the trip.
Greenland
In 1812-1813, Wormskjold made a botanicalBotany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
collection trip to Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
via Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
near Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. The mineralogist
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...
Karl Ludwig Giesecke
Karl Ludwig Giesecke
Karl Ludwig Giesecke was a German actor, librettist, polar explorer and mineralogist. In his youth he was called Johann Georg Metzler, in his later career in Ireland he was Sir Charles Lewis Giesecke.-Early life:His father was Johann Georg Metzler, a Protestant who worked as a tailor in Augsburg...
was meant to be his local contact. The vessel, “Freden”, was delayed for a month in Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
, which time Wormskjold used to follow lectures in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
by Robert Jameson
Robert Jameson
thumb|Robert JamesonProfessor Robert Jameson, FRS FRSE was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist.As Regius Professor at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, Jameson is notable for his advanced scholarship in natural history, his superb museum collection, and for his tuition of Charles...
and Daniel Rutherford
Daniel Rutherford
Daniel Rutherford was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is most famous for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772.Rutherford was the uncle of the novelist Sir Walter Scott.-Early life:...
. He also got acquainted with Ninian Imrie and Thomas Allan
Thomas Allan
The mineralogist Thomas Allan was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 17 July 1777 to a family of Scottish merchants and bankers. He took up banking for his profession, but he is remembered today for his contributions to mineral science...
, who had bought a party of minerals shipped by Giesecke
Karl Ludwig Giesecke
Karl Ludwig Giesecke was a German actor, librettist, polar explorer and mineralogist. In his youth he was called Johann Georg Metzler, in his later career in Ireland he was Sir Charles Lewis Giesecke.-Early life:His father was Johann Georg Metzler, a Protestant who worked as a tailor in Augsburg...
, but confiscated by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. During his stay in Greenland, he made observations and collections of molluscs and plants. His observations were communicated in letters and his Botanisk Journal only published in 1889 by Eugenius Warming
Eugenius Warming
Johannes Eugenius Bülow Warming , known as Eugen Warming, was a Danish botanist and a main founding figure of the scientific discipline of ecology...
. He had found 157 species of vascular plants, which more than doubled the known number.
Rurik expedition and Kamchatka
In 1815, back in Copenhagen, the opportunity to join the RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n expedition on the circumnavigational expeditionary ship Rurik commanded by Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....
. The other naturalists in the crew were the poet and botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet and botanist.- Life :He was born Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at the château of Boncourt at Ante, in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family...
and the physician and zoologist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz
Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz
Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz was a Livonian physician, botanist, zoologist and entomologist.Eschscholtz was born in Dorpat , Governorate of Livonia in the Russian Empire...
. For some reason, he a captain Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....
fell out and Wormskjold left the expedition in Petropavlovsk
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Population: .-History:It was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy...
on Kamchatka in 1816. He remained there for the next two years, collecting many specimens, and left in 1818. However, due to misfortune –a devastating fire – almost all specimens were destroyed. Some are preserved at the University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
.
After his return, he gave up natural history and lived with relatives. He died at Gavnø Castle.
Honours
He was given the Order of the DannebrogOrder of the Dannebrog
The Order of the Dannebrog is an Order of Denmark, instituted in 1671 by Christian V. It resulted from a move in 1660 to break the absolutism of the nobility. The Order was only to comprise 50 noble Knights in one class plus the Master of the Order, i.e. the Danish monarch, and his sons...
shortly before he - as the first Dane - completed his circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
. The marine green alga Urospora wormskioldii
Urospora
In taxonomy, Urospora is a genus of algae, specifically of the Acrosiphoniales.-Furher reading:Leliaert, F., Rueness, J., Boedeker, C., Maggs,C.A., Cocquyt,E., Verbruggen, H. and de Clerck, O. 2009. Systematics of the marine microfilamentous green algae Uronema curvatum and Urospora microscopia ....
(Mart in Honem.
Jens Wilken Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann was a Danish botanist.-Biography:He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica was given to Hornemann, who subsequently issued fasc. 22-39 with a total of 1080...
) Rosenv.
Lauritz Kolderup Rosenvinge
Janus Lauritz Andreas Kolderup Rosenvinge was a Danish botanist and phycologist. He took his Ph.D. 1888 from the University of Copenhagen. He was docent of botany at the polytechnic from 1900, and extraordinary professor of botany the University of Copenhagen with focus on spore plants from 1916...
, the flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
genus Wormskioldia Thonn.
Peter Thonning
Peter Thonning was a Danish physician and botanist.He was sent to Ghana by the Danish government to supervise the plantations of that colony, and he lived there from 1799 to 1803. His herbarium was destroyed during the shelling of Copenhagen by the British in 1807...
(Turneraceae
Turneraceae
Turneraceae Kunth ex DC. is a family of flowering plants consisting of 120 species in 10 genera. The Cronquist system placed the Turneracids in the order Violales, but it is not currently recognized as a valid family by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group in the APG III system of 2009, which includes...
) and several other species are named for him, e.g. Trifolium wormskioldii
Trifolium wormskioldii
The legume Trifolium wormskioldii is a species of clover native to the western half of North America. Its common names include cow clover, coast clover and springbank clover...
and Veronica wormskjoldii
Veronica wormskjoldii
Veronica wormskjoldii is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name American alpine speedwell. It is native to much of northern and western North America, including the western United States and northern Canada, from where it grows in moist alpine habitat, such as...
.