Swedish botanist and favoured student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Loefling studied the flora of Spain, particularly the region surrounding Madrid, and travelled to northern South America. Taking his degree with Linnaeus in 1743 he was referred to as a "most beloved pupil" and Loefling was brought into his master's own house as a companion for his son. For his dissertation in 1749 he wrote a piece entitled Gemmae arborum, a highly praised work describing the buds of local trees and shrubs which give rise to flowers or leaves. It describes 180 species in this way, allowing them to be identified even through the winter, and Linnaeus often referred to the essay as his own although it was a work written entirely by Loefling.
Loefling remained in Uppsala in 1750, helping Linnaeus with his Philosophia botanica, and it is said that he had a habit of asking awkward questions which aided his tutor in ensuring his meaning was clear. In 1751 the Spanish secretary of state, Joseph de Carvajal, invited Linnaeus to select a pupil to travel to Spain, taking on a professorial role in Madrid and studying the country's flora; Loefling was chosen straight away. In Iberia the study of plants was not as popular or held in such high regard as it was in other European countries and Linnaeus once referred to the Spaniards as botanical barbarians. Because of this he relished the opportunity to send a student there in an attempt to convert them and learn more about the flora of this neglected territory. When he arrived, however, the young Swede found the situation was not as dire as his teacher would have him believe. Landing in Porto, Portugal, he met Luis Godin, a member of the French earth-measuring expedition to Peru, who was on his way to Madrid and introduced Loefling to many influential characters. He befriended several of the early Spanish botanists, such as Juan Minuart, Miguel Barnades, and José Ortega, who each impressed him with their understanding of the local vegetation and private botanical collections. During his two years in Spain Loefling remained largely around Madrid and collected some 1,400 different species, he also promoted the sexual system, as Spanish natural historians were largely under the influence of Tournefort at this time.
After two years spent studying the Spanish flora he was offered a place on a large expedition to the Spanish colonies in South America, led by Joseph de Iturriaga. Loefling was set to receive a generous salary and the team set sail in 1754, arriving in Cumaná (at the time part of New Andalusia). He remained there for several months studying the plant life before travelling to the Piritu mission stations. Originally there was talk of the trip covering much of the continent, perhaps as far as Buenos Aires, with the aim of collecting plants with economic value and learning how to exploit them. Unfortunately Loefling was troubled by constant illness and by 1755, while based in the Murucuri Mission in modern day Venezuela, he died of malaria. Despite his untimely death at just 27 years of age, he still managed to send some 600 species back to Europe, including 30 genera and 250 species not previously recognised. In honour of his life Linnaeus published Petri Löfling Iter hispanicum in 1758, which contained accounts of his travels, letters to Linnaeus and his descriptions of plants from Spain and South America. For many years following this the Iter hispanicum was a text widely consulted by Spanish botanists (after its translation by Ignacio de Asso y del Rio) and the first Spanish floras drew much of their information from it. Loefling's name sometimes appears as Löfling, in its original Swedish form, although he published using the Latinised form.
Sources:
A. R. Steele, 1964, Flowers for the King: the expedition of Ruiz and Pavon and the Flora of Peru
R. E. Fries, 1950, A short history of botany in Sweden
F. A. Stafleu, 1971, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The spreading of their ideas in systematic botany, 1735-1789.
