Carl Niclas von Hellens

Carl Niclas von Hellens (1 August 1745 – 26 January 1820) was a Finnish botanist.

He was born Carl Niclas Hellenius in Kärkölä and studied at the Royal Academy of Turku from 1764.

He was responsible for the botanical garden and increased the number of plants in its collections from a couple of hundred to over two thousand species.

[1] The botanical genus Costus was formerly known as Hellenia after Carl Niclas von Hellens.

[1] Carl Reinhold Sahlberg, one of his students, dedicated to him the heteropteran species Sigara hellensii (C.R.