Finnish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus who died in Yemen while collecting plants for his professor. Although born in Helsinki, Forsskål soon moved to Uppsala where he began to study at the university when he was just ten years old. Although his parents wanted him to become a vicar, as his father had been, the young Forsskål was influenced by Carl Linnaeus and Anders Celsius and took an interest in natural history and oriental languages.

In 1753 he continued his education in Germany, studying Arabic, natural history and philosophy in Göttingen. On his return to Sweden Forsskål wrote a thesis on liberty and freedom of press which, being highly controversial, he was not allowed to print. He did, however, go ahead with the printing himself and distributed the paper, making himself extremely unpopular with the university. His papers were condemned to be publicly burnt. Luckily, at the same time Forsskål received the offer of a post on the Danish expedition to Arabia and he left Copenhagen for Alexandria in 1761.

The team spent a year in Egypt, which was a very dangerous place to be at the time, and Forsskål had to botanise with armed guards; he was even robbed several times. Unfortunately, the members of the expedition were not on good terms. Forsskål, as his controversial thesis displayed, was not one to back down from an argument and tension arose between him and the Danish orientalist, Von Haven. They often argued on political matters, although luckily it did not affect his plant collecting. Indeed Forsskål was certainly the most productive member of the team and he amassed a sizeable herbarium from Egypt.

Later the team headed to Suez and travelled by boat down the Arabian Peninsula. During this period Von Haven died. They were hoping to reach the capital of Yemen, but the group never reached it. Each of them contracted malaria and Forsskål died in Yerim at the age of 31. The sole survivor of the expedition was the astronomer and mathematician Carl Niebuhr, who saw through the study of Forsskål's manuscripts on his return. It is thanks to him that the most important of these, Flora aegyptiaco-arabica, was published in 1775. Descriptiones animalium and Icones rerum naturalium were also published under his name in 1775 and 1776 respectively. His seeds were sent to Linnaeus, who cultivated them successfully, and also to Copenhagen. Apart from his specimen of myrrh, which he gave to Linnaeus, all of his herbarium was sent to Copenhagen. This collection was later given the attention it deserved by M. Vahl, who studied and revised Forsskål's plants from 1779.

Sources:
R.E. Fries, 1950, A Short History of Botany in Sweden
I Friss, 1983, "Notes on the Botanical Collections and Publications of Pehr Forsskal", Kew Bulletin, 38(3): 457-467
A.S. Hökerberg, 2000, Men around Linnaeus: 37-39
F.A. Stafleu, 1971, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans
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