2010.11.11 - 17:00:28 / [email protected]. Botanists, museum experts and musicians from Cuba and Sweden will pay homage to Erik L. Ekman on November 25th and 26th in Havana. Ekman is considered one of the researchers that have contributed knowledge to the island´s botany. The activities in his honor will be held in Old Havana, according to a news note issued by the Office of the City Historian.">2010.11.11 - 17:00:28 / [email protected]. Botanists, museum experts and musicians from Cuba and Sweden will pay homage to Erik L. Ekman on November 25th and 26th in Havana. Ekman is considered one of the researchers that have contributed knowledge to the island´s botany. The activities in his honor will be held in Old Havana, according to a news note issued by the Office of the City Historian.">

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Homage to Swedish Naturalist Erik Ekman in Havana

  • Submitted by: manso
  • 11 / 12 / 2010

2010.11.11 - 17:00:28 / [email protected]. Botanists, museum experts and musicians from Cuba and Sweden will pay homage to Erik L. Ekman on November 25th and 26th in Havana. Ekman is considered one of the researchers that have contributed knowledge to the island´s botany.

The activities in his honor will be held in Old Havana, according to a news note issued by the Office of the City Historian.

Among some of the first activities to be held on November 25th will be the unveiling of a commemorative plague at the Alejandro de Humboldt House and a concert by the Ars Longa music ensemble at the Paula Church in Old Havana.

The following day, a scientific session will be held at the Humboldt House where the “Erik Ekman in Cuba: Memories of an Extraordinary Botanist Collector” exhibition will be inaugurated and the book “Plantae ekmanianae: a Swedish Botanist in the Caribbean” will be launched.

Two conferences will be presented on the role of the Swedish researcher in the knowledge of Cuban and Caribbean flora.

Ekman arrived to Havana on April of 1914 with the idea of making a short stopover before continuing his trip to La Española but his interest for Cuban biodiversity made him stay on the island for the following 10 years.

He collected over 2 000 new and unknown plants for science in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Many of the materials have been the basis for the description of species that are currently dedicated to the Swedish researcher (it has the name of ekmanii), according to the source.

In 1915 he climbed the Turquino Peak and measured its altitude.  The names of two of the other peaks Pico Cuba and Pico Suecia, which belongs to the Sierra Maestra Mountains is attributed to him.

There is an area in the National Botanical Garden called Rincon Ekman which exhibits several of his collected plants on the island.   

During the summer of 1924, Ekman left Cuba towards Haiti. He did not return to the island or his homeland and passed away in the Dominican Republic on January 15th, 1931 at the age of 47.

Source: ACN

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