Pius Font i Quer (1888–1964), the greatest Catalan botanist

Abstract

Pius Font i Quer (1888–1964) graduated in chemistry and pharmacy at the University of Barcelona. While studying for his doctorate at the University of Madrid, he entered to the Military Health Corps and became a military pharmacist, which allowed him to make expeditions throughout Spain and northern Africa. He carried out many botanical field studies at different areas of the Peninsula. During the Primo de Rivera dictatorship (1923–1930), Font i Quer, as a military pharmacist, was forced to choose a destination outside Barcelona. He decided to go to the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, where he stayed for four years. During his stay in Africa, he was able to explore the country’s flora. With the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 14, 1931, Font i Quer was appointed professor of pharmaceutical botany at the recently created Autonomous University of Barcelona (1932). During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), he continued to work to safeguard Barcelona’s botanical heritage. Three months after the end of the war, Font i Quer was arrested and was put in prison for a year and a half at Montjuïc Castle, with another six months in attenuated prison. Having lost all official positions in 1939, he started working at Editorial Labor. There, he wrote several relevant books: Geografía botánica de la Península Ibérica, 1953; Diccionario de botánica, 1953; Botánica, 1956; Botánica pintoresca, 1960 (partially translated into English); Plantas medicinales, 1962. In the last years of his life, Font i Quer had begun to think about collaborating on a new treatise on the flora of Catalonia. He died on January 3, 1964. Pius Font i Quer has left a legacy of more than 200 published works, the description of more than 200 new taxa, and the creation of the Catalan school of botany, which he raised to an international level. [Contrib Sci 11(1):121-124 (2015)]

Keywords: Pius Font i Quer (1888–1964) · Catalan botany · Botanical Institute of Barcelona