Thekla Resvoll

Thekla Susanne Ragnhild Resvoll (22 May, 1871 in Vågå, Oppland – 14 June, 1948 in Oslo) was a Norwegian botanist – a female pioneer in Norwegian natural history education and nature conservation together with her sister, Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen. She was married to mining engineer Andreas Holmsen (1869-1955).

Thekla Resvoll worked as a nurse in an upper-class home in Stockholm before commencing studies of natural history at the Royal Frederick University in Kristiania 1894. She became an adept of the professor of botany, Axel Blytt and, after her graduation in 1899, she was made amanuensis at the "Botanical Laboratory" in 1902. She obtained the doctoral degree in 1918 on a thesis entitled "On plants suited to a cold and short summer", in which she presented studies on adaptations of alpine plants to the harsh environment. These studies were Warmingian of nature, that is they were based on meticulous observations of plant individuals – their clonal and sexual propagation, perennation etc. Thus, it was plant population ecology before that discipline was first conceived. She remained at the "Botanical Laboratory" in Oslo until her retirement in 1936. Her botany classes made a resting impact on generations of Norwegian students. She also wrote a textbook on botany for high school pupils.Thekla Resvoll made a visit to Java and the botanic garden in Buitenzorg in 1923-24. She studied Fagaceous trees in the Javan flora. She found that they had hibernation buds and interpreted it as an unnecessary trait – a rudiment from their temperate origin.

Alongside her academic career, Thekla Resvoll took part in the women’s equality movement in Norway. She was a head of the Norwegian "Female Student’s Club" and on the board of the women's suffrage movement ("Kvinnestemmeretsforeningen"). She was the third woman to become a member of "Videnskabsselskabet i Kristiania" (now Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters).

elected scientific works

* Resvoll, T. R., 1900. Nogle arktiske ranunklers morfologi og anatomi. Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, 38: 343-367.
**Proof of energy storage in the rhizome of Ranunculus glacialis.

* Resvoll, T. R., 1903. Den nye Vegetation paa Lerfaldet i Værdalen. Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, 41.
**Describes primary succession.

* Resvoll, T. R., 1906. Pflanzenbiologische Beobachtungen aus dem Flugsandgebiet bei Röros im inneren Norwegen. Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, 44.

* Resvoll, T. R., 1917. Om planter som passer til kort og kold sommer. Doctoral thesis, Oslo.

* Resvoll, T. R., 1925. Rubus chamaemorus L. A morphological - biological study. Nytt Magasin for Naturvidenskapene, 67: 55-129.

* Resvoll, T. R., 1925. Rubus chamaemorus L. Die geographische Verbreitung der Pflanze und ihre Verbreitungsmittel. Veröffentlichungen des Geobotanischen Institutes Rübel in Zürich, 3: 224-241.

* Resvoll, T. R., 1925. Beschuppte Laubknospen in den immerfeuchten Tropenwäldern Javas. Jena.
** Hibernation buds in Tropical trees.

ources

*Obituary by Høeg, O.A. in "Blyttia" 6: 57-61 (1948).
*Eckblad, F.-E. (1991) Thekla Resvoll og Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen, to glemte? Pionerer i norsk botanikk. "Blyttia" 49: 3-10.
*Biography by Inger Nordal & Bredo Berntsen in Norsk biografisk leksikon, Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget (1999-2005)

External links

* [http://www.almamatersdotre.no/3548/ResvollThekla Norwegian biography with pictures]