Gunnar Erdtman

Otto Gunnar Elias Erdtman (18 November 1897 – 18 February 1973) was a Swedish botanist and pioneer in palynology.

He introduced methods of pollen analysis through his handbook of playnology and developed the graphical indicator known as the palynogram.

In 1903 the family moved to Stockholm where Gunnar and his brother Holger went to the Norra Latin gymnasium and they both took an interest in plants.

His brother Holger became a professor of phytochemistry and together they published a paper in 1933 on the method of acetolysis that removes the protoplasm of pollen and makes their slides durable.

In 1948, he created the palynological laboratory at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.