Erling Porsild

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Alf Erling Porsild (1901 - 1977) was a Danish-Canadian botanist. He was born in Copenhagen as a son of the botanist M.P. Porsild. He grew up on the Arctic Station in Qeqertarsuaq, West Greenland, where he acted as assistant to his father. 1936-1945, he was curator at the National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, and 1945-1967 head of the department of botany there. The wrote a number of scienfic treatises on the flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and of the Rocky Mountains, as well as numerous popular papers and books.

He borrowed the term pingo from Inuit and made it a scientific and vernacular term (first use in 1938). Porsild Pingo in Tuktoyaktuk is named in his honor. So is Mount Porsild in the Yukon Territory, Canada.

He was awarded the Massey Medal in 1966.

The standard author abbreviation A.E.Porsild is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[1]

[edit] Selected works

Porsild, A.E. (1920) Sur le poids et les dimensions des graines arctiques. Revue Générale de Botanique 32: 97-120.
Porsild, A.E. (1926) Contributions to the Flora of West-Greenland at 70°-71°45´ N. lat. Meddelelser om Grønland vol. 58 (2)
Porsild, A.E. (1941) A relic flora on sand dunes from the Champlain Sea in the Ottawa Valley. The Canadian Field-Naturalist 55: 66-72.
Porsild, A.E. (1951) Botany of Southeastern Yukon adjacent to the Canol Road. Bulletin / National Museum of Canada vol. 121 (also Biological series / National Museum of Canada vol. 41), 400 pp.
Porsild, A.E. (1953) Edible plants of the Arctic. Illustrated by Dagny Tande Lid. The Arctic 6: 15-34. Full text
Porsild, A.E. (1955) The vascular plants of the Western Canadian Arctic archipelago. Bulletin / National Museum of Canada vol. 135 (also Biological series / National Museum of Canada vol. 45), 226 pp.
Porsild, A.E. (1957) Illustrated Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Illustrated by Dagny Tande Lid. Bulletin / National Museum of Canada vol. 146. 209 pp.
Porsild, A.E., C.R. Harington & G.A. Mulligan (1967) Lupinus arcticus Wats. grown from seeds of Pleistocene age. Science 158 (3797): 113-114. [1]
Porsild, A.E. (1974) Rocky Mountain wild flowers. Illustrated by Dagny Tande Lid. Ottawa, National Museum of Natural Sciences, 454 pp.
Porsild A.E. & Cody, William J. (1980) Vascular plants of continental Northwest Territories, Canada. Ottawa, National Museum of Natural Sciences, 667 pp.