• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 11 / 23 / 2010

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2010.11.22 - 19:39:07 / [email protected]. Havana, Cuba.- Dr. Eric L. Ekman was a renowned Swedish naturalist that visited Havana in April of 1914 with the objective of making a short stopover before continuing his trip to the island of Española.

However, his interest to the unknown Cuban biodiversity trapped him for the following 10 years. Despite the refusal of the Stockholm Science Academy who financed his trip, Ekman continued his research on the island. Specialists from the Cuban Botanic Society consider him an extraordinarily talented scientist and with a huge working capacity.

He collected over 2 000 new and unknown plants for science in Cuba, Haiti and Dominican Republic, but in total, he gathered 35 750 Caribbean materials, which including its double, amounts to 100 000.

Many were analyzed later by researchers and have been the base for the registration of species which are dedicated to the renowned scientist because it has the specific name of ekmanii.

The excursions in the country have his name, but the emphasis of his research was found in the eastern part of the country, area where he drew attention to a special center for vegetable diversity.

Ekman climbed the Turquino Peak in April of 1915 and measured its height. He was given the attribution of the names of two important peaks in the Sierra Maestra Mountains: Cuba and Suecia.

The commemorative plaque found in the Havana municipality of Centro Havana, recalls his stay there and in the National Botanical Gardens in an area called “Rincón Ekman” ,where several of his plants are exhibited. In 1929, he sent 19 212 Cuban plants to Sweden, which totaled some 50 000 species and close to one thousand of these were new, confirming that Ekman was very knowledgeable of his botanical work.

However, during the summer of 1924 he left Cuba for Haiti and never returned, although he never returned to his country of birth, and passed away in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic on January 15th, 1931 at the age of 47.

According to letters he wrote, despite the great difficulties he underwent, Ekman found satisfaction in his fascinating botanic collections in the Caribbean, never before achieved.

In 1926, from Haiti, he wrote: I am satisfied with the fact that I gave the best of me where I am now and that the approval of my mind is enough compensation. Without a doubt, I was born to be what I am, modern adventurer, a wanderer in the green land of God”. (By Lino Luben Pérez)

Source: ACN