Thekla Resvoll

Who was Thekla Resvoll?

Thekla Susanne Ragnhild Resvoll was a Norwegian botanist – a female pioneer in Norwegian natural history education and nature conservation together with her sister, Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen. She was married to mining engineer Andreas Holmsen.

Resvoll was born in Vågå. She worked as a nurse in an upper-class home in Stockholm before commencing studies of natural history at the Royal Frederick University in Kristiania 1894. She became an adept of the professor of botany, Axel Blytt and, after her graduation in 1899, she was made an associate professor at the Botanical Laboratory in 1902. She obtained the doctorate in 1918 on a thesis entitled On Plants Suited to a Cold and Short Summer, in which she presented studies on adaptations of alpine plants to the harsh environment. These studies were Warmingian of nature, that is they were based on meticulous observations of plant individuals—their clonal and sexual propagation, perennation etc. Thus, it was plant population ecology before that discipline was first conceived. Thekla Resvoll made a visit to Java and the botanic garden in Buitenzorg in 1923-24. She studied Fagaceous trees in the Javan flora. She found that they had hibernation buds and interpreted it as an unnecessary trait – a rudiment from their temperate origin. She remained at the Botanical Laboratory until her retirement in 1936. Her botany classes made a resting impact on generations of Norwegian students. She also wrote a textbook on botany for high school pupils.