Kurt Egon Hjortstam (1933–2009) was a Swedish mycologist, specialising in the taxonomy of corticioid fungi.
Kurt Hjortstam received no formal education beyond primary school, but as an adult developed an interest in the vascular plants of Sweden.
[3] He was later taken on as an assistant at the University of Oslo where he had access to Prof. Leif Ryvarden's extensive collections of tropical corticioid fungi.
Hjortstam developed his expertise in tropical species, visiting Brazil, and was latterly employed as a taxonomic mycologist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
[1] Altogether, Kurt Hjortstam authored 139 scientific papers,[4] describing 54 new genera and 181 new species of corticioid fungi.