Carlos Luis Spegazzini, or Carlo Luigi Spegazzini, (20 April 1858–1 July 1926) was an Italian-Argentinian botanist and mycologist

Mycology

Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals , food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or...

. Spegazzini published about 100 scientific papers on vascular plant

Vascular plant

Vascular plants are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms...

s, describing around 1000 new taxa. He was a professor at the University of La Plata and Buenos Aires in Argentina, curator of the herbarium of the National Department of Agriculture, first head of the herbarium of Museo de la Plata

La Plata Museum

The La Plata Museum is a natural history museum in La Plata, Argentina.The building, 135 meters long, today houses 3 million fossils and relics , an amphitheatre, opened in 1992, and a 58,000-volume library, serving over 400 university researchers...

, and founder of an arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 and an institute of mycology in La Plata city.

In 1924 he edited the journal Revista Argentina de Botánica, but only four issues were published before his death.

In a 1924 Mycologia

Mycologia

Mycologia is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes papers on all aspects of the fungi, including lichens. It first appeared as a bimonthly journal in January of 1909, published by the New York Botanical Garden under the editorship of William Murrill. It became the official journal of...

publication, William Murrill

William Murrill

William Alphonso Murrill was an American mycologist, known for his contributions to the knowledge of the Agaricales and Polyporaceae.- Education :...

 recounted his time visiting with Spegazzini, who was then 66 years old:

Dr Spegazzini is an old man, but strong in body, young in thought, and still full of the spirit of adventure. He has just returned from Tierra del Fuego, is planning to go to Europe next year, and promises me to come to the United States the following year 'if nothing happens'. He was born in a village in Italy and was a student of the fungi there before coming to Argentina. He has described a great many South American plants in various groups but his work is poorly known elsewhere and few of his specimens have been seen by other botanists. ... The Doctor is exceedingly genial in manner and very kind hearted. He and his son stayed with me all day long, showing me specimens, photographs and publications; giving me anything I wanted for our herbarium; taking me out to a sportsman's club for lunch; visiting the museum; and going on a short collecting trip in the woods. We talked French, German, English, Latin and Spanish indiscriminately and recklessly, keeping up a continuous flow of conversation lest our ignorance in certain languages be discovered.

External links

• biographical sketch with image
• Type material of Carlos L. Spegazzini in the Museo de La Plata Herbarium (LP), Argentina. III: Cactaceae, Darwinian 42
• of the Southern Zone — Exploration, 1847-1891, Tuatara 18(2)