Gunnar Seidenfaden

Who was Gunnar Seidenfaden?

Gunnar Seidenfaden was a Danish diplomat and botanist. He was Danish ambassador in Thailand 1955-1959, and in the U.S.S.R. 1959-1961. He was an expert on Southeast Asia Orchidaceae. He published several multi-volume works on orchids, e.g. The Orchids of Thailand – A Preliminary List and Orchid Genera in Thailand vol. I- XIV. These works are strictly taxonomic and floristic, but decorated with Seidenfaden’s own drawings of flower parts as seen under the dissection microscope. His collection of more than 10.000 speciments was donated to the University of Copenhagen, together with original drawings by Katja Anker and others.

Gunnar Seidenfaden studied botany in the faculty of biological sciences at the University of Copenhagen 1926-1934. He was soon involved in botanical investigation in Greenland. From 1928, he spend six summers in Greenland, partly as a manager of Lauge Koch’s Three-year Expedition to East Greenland. Unfortunately, he failed his master exam in botany and turned to studies of economy and political science; graduating as “cand.polit.” in 1940. He was then employed by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After his ambassador years, he headed the juridical office of the ministry until 1967. He continued to take assignments as Danish envoy at international conferences on environmental matters, e.g. CITES, Helsinki Convention, and the Bern Convention.