Eric Ragnor Sventenius

Who was Eric Ragnor Sventenius?

Eric Ragnor Sventenius was a Hispano-Swedish botanist.

Born in the small town of Skirö, Vetlanda, he studied in various universities across Europe. In Spain, he studied at the Marimurta Botanical Garden in Blanes which had been founded in 1920 by Karl Faust. In 1931, he traveled to the Canary Islands. In 1952, he began working at the Botanical Garden of Tenerife. He studied and catalogued unclassified Canarian species.

Sventenius proposed creating a botanical garden dedicated to Canarian flora, continuing the work begun by José de Viera y Clavijo. At Gran Canaria, he founded the Jardín Canario in 1952 near the island's capital. It opened its doors to the public in 1959.

He worked as the garden's director until his death in 1973 in a car accident.

The standard botanical author abbreviation Svent. is applied to the species he described.