Erling Porsild
Encyclopedia
Biography
He 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...
as a son of the botanist M.P. Porsild
Morten Pedersen Porsild
right|thumb|200px|M. P. Porsild on his 80th birthday, September 1, 1952. Photo: Albert Schou jr.Morten Pedersen Porsild was a Danish botanist who lived and worked most of his adult life in Greenland. He participated in expeditions to Greenland in 1898 and 1902, together with the physiologist...
. He grew up on the Arctic Station in Qeqertarsuaq
Qeqertarsuaq
Qeqertarsuaq is a port and a town in Qaasuitsup municipality, located on the south coast of Qeqertarsuaq Island, an island on the west coast of Greenland. Founded in 1773, it is home to a campus of the University of Copenhagen...
, West 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...
, where he acted as assistant to his father. Between 1936-1945, he was curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
at the National Museum of Canada, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, and from 1945 to 1967 he was head of the department of 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...
there. He authored over 100 scientific articles on the flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago
Canadian Arctic Archipelago
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Arctic Archipelago, is a Canadian archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic...
and of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, as well as numerous popular papers and books, including important floras of Canada's Arctic and northern regions.
He made over 25,000 plant collections (numbers), resulting in over 100,000 specimens which are deposited in the National Herbarium of Canada (CAN) at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, and in other herbaria around the world.
He borrowed the term pingo
Pingo
A pingo, also called a hydrolaccolith, is a mound of earth-covered ice found in the Arctic and subarctic that can reach up to in height and up to in diameter. The term originated as the Inuvialuktun word for a small hill. A pingo is a periglacial landform, which is defined as a nonglacial...
from Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
and made it a scientific and vernacular term (first used in 1938). Porsild Pingo in Tuktoyaktuk is named in his honor. So is Mount Porsild in the Yukon Territory, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The Canadian Botanical Association awards annually the 'Alf Erling Porsild Award', in recognition of the best paper published in the field of systematics and phytogeography that year by a graduate student in a Canadian university or a Canadian student in a foreign university.
Porsild was awarded the Massey Medal
Massey Medal
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society awards the Massey Medal annually to recognize outstanding personal achievement in the exploration, development or description of the geography of Canada. The award was established in 1959, by the Massey Foundation, named for industrialist Hart...
by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society
Royal Canadian Geographical Society
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to imparting a broader knowledge and deeper appreciation of Canada — its people and places, its natural and cultural heritage and its environmental, social and economic challenges.-History:The...
in 1966.
Selected works
- Porsild, A.E. (1920) Sur le poids et les dimensions des grainesSeedA seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
arctiques. Revue Générale de Botanique 32: 97-120. - Porsild, A.E. (1926) Contributions to the Flora of West-GreenlandGreenlandGreenland 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...
at 70°-71°45´ N. lat. Meddelelser om GrønlandMeddelelser om GrønlandMeddelelser om Grønland was a Danish scientific periodical issued by the Commission for Scientific Investigations in Greenland. Founded by Frederik Johnstrup, it was published from 1879 to 1979...
vol. 58 (2) - Porsild, A.E. (1938) Earth mounds in unglaciated arctic northwestern America. The Geographical Review 28: 46-58.
- Porsild, A.E. (1941) A relic flora on sand dunes from the Champlain SeaChamplain SeaThe Champlain Sea was a temporary inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, a paratropical subsea or epeiric sea created by the retreating glaciers during the close of the last ice age...
in the Ottawa Valley. The Canadian Field-Naturalist 55: 66-72. Full text - Porsild, A.E. (1943) Materials for a flora of the continental Northwest Territories of Canada. Sargentia 4: 1-79.
- Porsild, A.E. (1945) Mammals of the Mackenzie Delta. Canadian Field-Naturalist 59: 4-22.
- Porsild, A.E. (1950) Vascular plants of Nueltin Lake, Northwest Territories. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 118: 72-83.
- Porsild, A.E. (1951) Botany of Southeastern Yukon adjacent to the Canol Road. Bulletin / National Museum of Canada vol. 121 (also Biological series / National Museum of Canada vol. 41), 400 pp.
- Porsild, A.E. (1951) Plant life in the Arctic. Canadian Geographical Journal 42: 120-145.
- Porsild, A.E. (1951) A biological exploration of Banks and Victoria Islands. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 123: 133-138 (reprinted from Arctic Circular, 1950).
- Porsild, A.E. (1953) Edible plants of the Arctic. Illustrated by Dagny Tande LidDagny Tande LidDagny Tande Lid was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and poet. She is most noted for her drawings of plants and is known for her own illustrated poetry collections, and for her botanical illustrations of Norwegian postage stamps....
. The Arctic 6: 15-34. Full text - Porsild, A.E. (1955) The vascular plants of the Western Canadian Arctic archipelago. Bulletin / National Museum of Canada vol. 135 (also Biological series / National Museum of Canada vol. 45), 226 pp.
- Porsild, A.E. (1957) Illustrated Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Illustrated by Dagny Tande LidDagny Tande LidDagny Tande Lid was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and poet. She is most noted for her drawings of plants and is known for her own illustrated poetry collections, and for her botanical illustrations of Norwegian postage stamps....
. Bulletin / National Museum of Canada vol. 146. 209 pp. - Porsild, A.E. 1958. Geographical distribution of some elements in the flora of Canada. Geographical Bulletin 11: 57-77.
- Porsild, A.E. 1964. Illustrated flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (2nd edition, revised). National Museum of Canada Bulletin 146: 1-218.
- Porsild, A. E. 1965. Some new or critical vascular plants of Alaska and Yukon. Canadian Field-Naturalist 79: 79-90.
- Porsild, A. E. 1966. Contributions to the flora of southwestern Yukon Territory. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 216: 1-86.
- Porsild, A.E., C.R. Harington & G.A. Mulligan (1967) Lupinus arcticus Wats. grown from seeds of PleistocenePleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
age. ScienceScience (journal)Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
158 (3797): 113-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.158.3797.113 - Porsild, A.E. and W.J. Cody. (1968) Checklist of the vascular plants of continental Northwest Territories, Canada. Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. 102 pp.
- Cody, W.J. and A.E. Porsild. (1968) Additions to the flora of continental Northwest Territories, Canada. Canadian Field-Naturalist 82: 263-275.
- Porsild, A. E. 1974. Materials for a flora of central Yukon Territory. National Museums of Canada, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Publications in Botany, No. 4. 77 pp.
- Porsild, A.E. (1974) Rocky Mountain wild flowers. Illustrated by Dagny Tande LidDagny Tande LidDagny Tande Lid was a Norwegian painter, illustrator and poet. She is most noted for her drawings of plants and is known for her own illustrated poetry collections, and for her botanical illustrations of Norwegian postage stamps....
. Ottawa, National Museum of Natural Sciences, 454 pp. - Porsild A.E. & Cody, William J. (1980) Vascular plants of continental Northwest Territories, Canada. Ottawa, National Museum of Natural Sciences, 667 pp.