Blanca Catalán de Ocón explained

Blanca Catalán de Ocón
Birth Name:Blanca Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá
Birth Date:22 August 1860
Birth Place:Calatayud, in the Province of Zaragoza
Death Place:Vitoria-Gasteiz
Known For:First woman Spanish botanist

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.

Early life and education

Blanca 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

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 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".[8]

Two of her herbaria survive:

Personal life

In 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

In 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

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Stadler . Marta Macho . 2019-05-28 . Blanca Catalán de Ocón, primera botánica española . 2024-03-17 . Mujeres con ciencia . es.
  2. Web site: Blanca Catalán de Ocón . Real Academia de la Historia.
  3. Book: Willkomm . Moritz . Prodromus florae hispanicae, seu synopsis methodica omnium plantarum in Hispania . Willkomm . Moritz . Lange . Joh . 1861 . E. Schweizerbart . Stuttgart.
  4. Web site: Galdeano . Laura . 2019 . La primera española que dio su nombre a una flor . Libertad Digital - Cultura . es-ES.
  5. Book: Loscos Bernal, Francisco . Tratado de plantas de Aragon . 1876–1877 . [s.n.] .
  6. Web site: Linaria repens . asturnatura.
  7. Web site: 2019-02-14 . Espores - BLANCA CATALÁN, LA PRIMERA BOTÀNICA EN LA NOMENCLATURA CIENTÍFICA . 2024-03-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190214061336/http://espores.org/es/botanicos/blanca-catalan-de-ocon-la-primera-botanica-espanola-en-la-nomenclatura-cientifica-universal.html . 2019-02-14 .
  8. Web site: Catalán de Ocón, Blanca - Página de voz - Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa OnLine . 2024-03-17 . web.archive.org.
  9. Web site: 2020-09-25 . Revista Librujula - Blanca Catalán de Ocón, la primera y desconocida botánica española . 2024-03-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200925040243/http://librujula.com/actualidad/2337-blanca-catalan-de-ocon-la-primera-y-desconocida-botanica-espanola . 2020-09-25 .
  10. Web site: Ilecara . 2010 . MUJERES QUE HACEN LA HISTORIA - BREVES BIOGRAFÍAS: Siglo XIX - Blanca Catalán de Ocón . MUJERES QUE HACEN LA HISTORIA - BREVES BIOGRAFÍAS.
  11. Web site: Claudia Casanova: 'La rebeldía a veces abre caminos muy interesantes' . www.eitb.eus . es.
  12. Web site: Madrid homenajea a la primera botánica española poniendo su nombre a una zona verde de Retiro . 2023-05-10 . Diario de Madrid . es.
  13. Book: Botánicos turolenses de la comarca del Jiloca. III. Blanca Catalán de Ocón . 1998 . floramontiberica.org . spanish .
  14. Web site: Resultados para 'su:Catalán de Ocón y Gayolá, Blanca, Biografies.' [WorldCat.org] ]. www.worldcat.org . spanish.
  15. Book: Jaime Lorén, José María de . 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 . 2006 . CEU UCH . 989202878 .

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