Blanca Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá (22 August 1860 - 17 March 1904) was a Spanish botanist, considered the first woman specialist in the field in Spain.
Blanca Catalán de Ocón | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Blanca Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá 22 August 1860 Calatayud, in the Province of Zaragoza |
| Died | 17 March 1904 (aged 43) |
| Known for | First woman Spanish botanist |
Early life and education
editBlanca Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá was born on 22 August 1860 in Calatayud, in the Province of Zaragoza but from an early age lived with her family in Monreal del Campo, in Teruel. She was the eldest daughter of an aristocratic couple, Loreto de Gayolá (1839–1887) and Manuel Catalán de Ocón (1822–1899).[1] Her mother had been educated in Switzerland, and encouraged her daughters to develop an interest in botany and entomology and instilled in them a love of nature. They spent a lot of time exploring the natural world at "La Campana" a house in Valdecabriel, in the Sierra de Albarracín. Her younger sister, Clotilde Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá, was an entomologist and became a poet. The young Blanca also wrote poetry.[2]
Botanical career
edit
Blanca Catalán de Ocón collected a herbarium, (preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study with plants) from the Albarracín area. Some of the species had been unrecorded by science until then. The Canon of Albarracín, Bernardo Zapater, who was also a botanist, put her in contact with the German botanist Heinrich Moritz Willkomm, who was preparing his definitive book Prodromus Florae Hispanicae[2] with Johan Martin Christian Lange.[3] It was published in 1861–1880, under the name Prodromus Florae Hispanicae seu Synopsis Methodica omnium Plantarum in Hispania Sponte Nascentium vel Frequentius Cultarum quae Innotuerunt Auctoribus. Stuttgartiae. Willkomm included Catalán de Ocón's name amongst the main plant collectors in his work on Spanish flora, and included an illustration of the white Saxifraga Blanca on one of the coloured plates.[4]
She was recognised by the Aragonese botanist, Francisco Loscos Bernal, making Catalán de Ocón the first Spanish botanist to have her name inscribed in universal scientific nomenclature. Loscos Bernal would cite her work in his Tratado de plantas de Aragón (Treatise on the plants of Aragon).[5]
She was associated with the Valencian botanist Carlos Pau, who named of the species Linaria blanca (since renamed Linaria repens)[6] after Catalán de Ocón and described some of the species she had sent him, such as Serratula albarracinensis (since renamed Klasea nudicaulis).[7] Her work in the botanical field, unusual for a woman of her time, led to Willkomm, in a letter to Zapater in 1879, describing her as "the first botanist of Spain".[2][8]
Two of her herbaria survive:
- Recuerdos de la Sierra de Albarracín. Herbario de botánica de plantas raras de Valdecabriel
- Souvenir des Aigues-Bonnes. Herbier de Botanique des plantes rares de la Vallée d'Ossau. Recuerdos de la Sierra de Albarracín.[9]
Personal life
editIn 1888, Blanca Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá married Enrique Ruiz del Castillo, a Cartagena judge assigned to the court in Vitoria. They had two children. She died of lung disease on 17 March 1904.[10]
Legacy and commemoration
editIn 2019, the writer Claudia Casanova published the novel Historia de una flor, inspired by the life of Blanca Catalán de Ocón.[11]
In 2022, Madrid City Council named a green space in the Retiro Municipal District after her, Jardín Blanca Catalán de Ocón.[12]
Bibliography
edit- Botánicos turolenses de la comarca del Jiloca. III. Blanca Catalán de Ocón, Jaime Lorén, José María de, Flora Montiberica 10: 10-12 (IX-1998).[13]
- La mujer en la ciencia a lo largo de la historia: Blanca y Clotilde Catalán de Ocón, consideradas las primeras mujeres españolas que ejercieron activamente la Botánica y la Entomología: exposición del 8 al 12 de mayo de 2006, Biblioteca Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), José María de Jaime Lorén; Milagros Benito Hernández; Rafael Martín Algarra; Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU.[14]
- La mujer en la Ciencia a lo largo de la historia: Blanca y Clotilde Catalán de Ocón, consideradas las primeras mujeres españolas que ejercieron activamente la botánica y la entomología, José María de Jaime Lorén, CEU UCH, 2006.[15]
- Catálogo de las plantas colectadas por la Srta. Blanca Catalán de Ocón en el Valle de Valdecabriel; Miscelánea Turolense, p. 20, Madrid, 1894.
References
edit- ^ Stadler, Marta Macho (2019-05-28). "Blanca Catalán de Ocón, primera botánica española". Mujeres con ciencia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-03-17.
- ^ a b c "Blanca Catalán de Ocón". Real Academia de la Historia.
- ^ Willkomm, Moritz; Willkomm, Moritz; Lange, Joh (1861). Prodromus florae hispanicae, seu synopsis methodica omnium plantarum in Hispania. Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbart.
- ^ Galdeano, Laura (2019). "La primera española que dio su nombre a una flor". Libertad Digital - Cultura (in European Spanish).
- ^ Loscos Bernal, Francisco (1876–1877). Tratado de plantas de Aragon. [s.n.]
- ^ "Linaria repens". asturnatura.
- ^ "Espores - BLANCA CATALÁN, LA PRIMERA BOTÀNICA EN LA NOMENCLATURA CIENTÍFICA". 2019-02-14. Archived from the original on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
- ^ "Catalán de Ocón, Blanca - Página de voz - Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa OnLine". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
- ^ "Revista Librujula - Blanca Catalán de Ocón, la primera y desconocida botánica española". 2020-09-25. Archived from the original on 2020-09-25. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
- ^ Ilecara (2010). "MUJERES QUE HACEN LA HISTORIA - BREVES BIOGRAFÍAS: Siglo XIX - Blanca Catalán de Ocón". MUJERES QUE HACEN LA HISTORIA - BREVES BIOGRAFÍAS.
- ^ "Claudia Casanova: 'La rebeldía a veces abre caminos muy interesantes'". www.eitb.eus (in Spanish).
- ^ "Madrid homenajea a la primera botánica española poniendo su nombre a una zona verde de Retiro". Diario de Madrid (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-05-10.
- ^ Botánicos turolenses de la comarca del Jiloca. III. Blanca Catalán de Ocón (PDF) (in Spanish). floramontiberica.org. 1998.
- ^ "Resultados para 'su:Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá, Blanca, Biografies.' [WorldCat.org]". www.worldcat.org (in Spanish).
- ^ Jaime Lorén, José María de (2006). La mujer en la Ciencia a lo largo de la historia: Blanca y Clotilde Catalán de Ocón, consideradas las primeras mujeres españolas que ejercieron activamente la botánica y la entomología. CEU UCH. OCLC 989202878.