Modified from Koponen (1999)
Jette Lewinsky-Haapasaari (1948–1998) was a Danish bryologist best known for her taxonomic studies of the Orthotrichaceae, and especially for her worldwide revision of the genus Orthotrichum. She was born in Copenhagen on 13 March 1948 and studied biology at the University of Copenhagen, where she completed her Candidate of Science degree in 1973. Her early work focused on the Plagiotheciaceae of Denmark, and in 1976 she obtained a Licentiate in Science in bryology with studies on the Orthotrichaceae.
Her scientific work combined extensive herbarium studies with fieldwork in many parts of the world. She collected in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Australia, New Zealand, East Africa, western North America, Iceland, Hawaii and elsewhere, and visited numerous herbaria in connection with her taxonomic research.
Lewinsky-Haapasaari’s major scientific achievement was her attempt to produce a worldwide monograph of Orthotrichum, a taxonomically difficult genus with many small species, limited diagnostic characters and extensive synonymy. Her work substantially revised the circumscription of the genus: she reduced more than 200 accepted names to fewer than 100 species, while also describing 22 species new to science. Her Ph.D. thesis, Monographic studies on Orthotrichum (Musci), recognized 116 species and 11 varieties and synthesized the morphology, ecology, distribution, taxonomy, evolution and geographic history of the genus.
Her regional revisions covered Africa, Australasia, South America, Southeast Asia, Hawaii, Europe, the Caucasus and northern Africa, making her one of the leading specialists of Orthotrichum worldwide. Even after publication of her major monographic work, she continued to study unidentified material and to describe new taxa.
Lewinsky-Haapasaari worked for many years at the Botanical Museum of the University of Copenhagen, mainly with bryophyte collections, and later moved to Kuopio, Finland, where she continued her research on Orthotrichaceae. In 1995 she became Docent Lecturer in Botany at the University of Helsinki. She was also active in the Nordic Bryological Society, serving as its President from 1992 to 1994, and contributed to several international moss-flora projects.
In recognition of her scientific achievements, she received the Stanley Greene Award for Bryological Research in 1995. She died on 12 November 1998, aged 50. Her work remains an important contribution to the taxonomy and worldwide understanding of the Orthotrichaceae.
References
Timo Koponen (1999) Jette Lewinsky–Haapasaari (1948–1998), Journal of Bryology, 21:3, 251-252, DOI: 10.1179/jbr.1999.21.3.251
