Species Acharia tragodes

For Erik Acharius (1757–1819), Swedish botanist and physician who pioneered the taxonomy of lichens and is known as the ‘father of lichenology’. In 1773 he entered Uppsala University as a pupil of Linnaeus, graduating from Lund University in 1782. He was appointed professor of botany at Wadstena Academy, Stockholm, in 1801 and devoted himself to the study of lichens. All his publications were connected with that class of plants, his Lichenographia Universalis (Göttingen, 1804) being the most important. He was appointed a provincial doctor at Vadstena in 1789 and did much to improve health care. He was particularly concerned about the treatment of venereal diseases and founded a special hospital for this at Vadstena in 1795 where he was director.