Du Rietz, Gustaf Einar   (1895 - 1967)

He finished grade school in 1912, and became a 'Filosofie kandidat' in 1917.
The seventeen-year-old who registered at Uppsala University developed a varied interest in outdoor botany, especially in lichens and coastal areas, passions that he maintained throughout his life.

Du Rietz graduated with a licentiate degree from Uppsala University in 1921, and received an associate professorship the same year.

In 1922 Du Rietz was awarded a PhD after defending a controversial thesis.

From 1917 to 1923, Du Rietz served as an associate assistant professor at the Department of Plant Biology. He then transitioned to the role of curator at the Botanical Museum in Uppsala, a position he held from 1924 to 1927.

Swedish-Australasian botanical expedition

In 1926-27, Du Rietz and his wife conducted a research trip to New Zealand, including its sub-Antarctic islands, with visits to a large part of Australia and Java. The purpose of trip, known as the Swedish Australasian Botanical Expedition, was to compare vegetation across the visited countries.

Du Rietz's New Zealand itinerary included the Tararua Mountains, montane research stations operated by Canterbury College, Hokitika, Mount Cook, and the fjords of northwest Otago. He was already somewhat familiar with New Zealand lichens, having previously corresponded with plant geographer Leonard Cockayne and botanist Harry Allan, the latter of whom had sent lichen samples to Du Rietz for study.

Although his first wife, Greta Sernander Du Rietz, was an accomplished lichenologist in her own right, she did not have any formal university training in the subject, having been taught instead by her father, who was Professor of Botany at Uppsala University. In New Zealand, she primarily collated and preserved specimens collected by her husband, and only began writing about lichens after their divorce in 1951.

Du Rietz returned with about 3,000 specimens that he was unable to fully process due to his academic commitments in Sweden.

Back in Sweden

Having been a docent since 1921, in 1934 Du Rietz was appointed as both professor of plant ecology at Uppsala University (emeritus in the early 1960s), and as the director of the institute.

Du Rietz resumed his international contacts on a large scale during the first major International Botanical Congress after the Second World War, in Stockholm in 1950. He was then responsible for the plant geography section as well as for its excursions and the many guide books for these that were published.

He died of a heart attack in Uppsala on 7 March 1967, at the age of 72, while he was walking on his way to work.

Source: Extracted from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustaf_Einar_Du_Rietz

Portrait Photo: Wikipedia.

Collecting localities for 'du Reitz, G.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 40 specimens in Aust-NZ herbaria