Swenson, Ulf   (1959 - )

Born on 11 June 1959 in Ljungby, Sweden.

Swedish botanist with a Ph.D. from Uppsala University in 1995. His thesis dealt with the amphi-Pacific genus Abrotanella (Asteraceae) with species in Papua New Guinea, Mt Kosciusko, New Zealand, Auckland and Campbell Islands, Tierra del Fuego, and Juan Fernandez Islands. He collected plants during his postdoc in the latter archipelago in 1996, a work continued at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and University of British Columbia.

After being appointed Assistant Professorships at Lund University (1998) and Stockholm University (1999), he obtained a Research position at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in 2002 where he remained in office until he retired in April 2025.

Swenson's interest in historical biogeography led to some importance publications such as that the Gondwanan genus Nothofagus arrived to areas through dispersal, not vicariance. In 2002, he embarked on taxonomy, systematics, and biogeography in the tropical plant family Sapotaceae, a group of plants he was worked on until he retired.

Swenson has collected plants in several areas, including Tasmania (1994) and New Zealand, but also Costa Rica, Hawaii, Madagascar, South Africa and Vietnam, but mainly so in New Caledonia. The main collection is deposited at Swedish Museum of Natural History (S), with many duplicates sent to Brisbane (BRI), Canberra (CANB) and Melbourne (MEL) herbaria.

The endemic New Caledonian shrub Planchonella ulfii Munzinger is named in his honour.

Source: Pers.Comm. Ulf Swenson (2025)
Portrait Photo: 2025, M.Fagg

Collecting localities for 'Swenson, U.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 301 specimens