Dahlgren was born in
Örebro on 7 July 1932 to
apothecary Rudolf Dahlgren and wife Greta née Dahlstrand.[1] He took his
MSc degree in Biology in (1955) and
PhD degree in Botany in (1963) at
Lund University.[2] He was killed in a car crash in
Scania,
Sweden on 14 February 1987.[3]
Career
He continued working on
South African plants during expeditions in 1956-57 and 1965–66, while affiliated with the Botanical Museum in Lund as docent. In 1973, he became
professor of
botany at the
University of Copenhagen. Here, he developed his
system of
Angiosperm classification, based on many more characters simultaneously than previous systems, most notably many
chemical plant traits (see also
chemotaxonomy). Although the system was first presented in
Danish,[4] it rapidly gained widespread acceptance, particularly due to the instructive diagrams, so-called Dahlgrenograms. His work on family circumscription in the
Monocotyledons, published with
Harold Trevor Clifford and Peter Frederick Yeo, has had profound influence well into the molecular age.[5][6]
A Rolf Dahlgren Memorial Symposium was held in
Berlin,
Germany later in 1987. The couple had three children, Susanna, Helena and Fredrik.[7]
Dahlgren, R. (1975). "A system of classification of angiosperms to be used to demonstrate the distribution of characters". Botaniska Notiser. 128: 119–147.
Dahlgren R. (1975b). The distribution of characters within an angiosperm system. I. Some embryological characters. Botaniska Notiser 128: 181–197
Dahlgren, R., 1977b. A note on the Taxonomy of the 'Synpetalae' and related groups. Publications of the Cairo University Herbarium, 7–8: 83- 102.
Dahlgren. R., Nielsen, B. J., Goldblait, P. & Rourke, J. P., 1979. Further notes on Retziaceae, its chemical contents and affinities.
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 66: 545-556
Dahlgren, R., Jensen, S. R., & Nielsen, B. J., 1976. Iridoid compounds in Fouquieraceae and notes on its possible affinities. Bolaniska Notiser 129: 207-212.