Nils Gustaf von Lagerheim

Nils Gustaf Lagerheim (1860–1926) was a Swedish botanist, mycologist, phycologist, and pteridologist. Today, he is best remembered as one of the chief architects of pollen analysis as a tool in botany, alongside his student Ernst Post.

Career and expeditions

After graduating from Uppsala University in 1885 Lagerheim was appointed assistant in the botanical department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, where he specialised in freshwater algae and rust fungi.

Pollen analysis pioneer

While curator at the museum (1893–1907) Lagerheim investigated fossil pollen in peat cores from Uppland iron-age sites. In a 1902 paper he plotted percentage curves of spruce and alder pollen versus depth—an idea taken up by his student Ernst Post and now regarded as the first true pollen diagram, laying a foundation for modern Quaternary palaeoecology.