Jacob Georg Agardh

Jacob Georg Agardh (8 December 1813 in Lund, Sweden – 17 January 1901 in Lund, Sweden) was a Swedish botanist, phycologist, and taxonomist.

Early life and career He was the son of Carl Adolph Agardh, and from 1854 until 1879 was professor of botany at Lund University. Agardh designed the current 1862 blueprints for the botanical garden Botaniska trädgården in Lund.

In 1849, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Agardh was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1878. It is said that the naturalist Mary Philadelphia Merrifield learnt Swedish in order that she could correspond with him.

Australian female collectors and Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller, as the Government Botanist of Victoria from 1853 to 1896, played an important role in facilitating the study of Australian flora, including algae. Mueller established an extensive network of collectors across Australia, many of whom were women. He actively encouraged these female collectors to gather specimens, which he then sent to specialists around the world for identification and description. In the case of algae, Mueller regularly corresponded with Agardh in Sweden, who was a leading expert in phycology. Mueller would send Agardh specimens collected by his network of female botanists, along with any relevant information about the specimens. Agardh would then identify and sometimes describe new species based on these specimens.

Works and Botanical Collecting His principal work, Species, Genera et Ordines Algarum (4 vols., Lund, 1848–63), was a standard authority.