Carlo Luigi Giuseppe Bertero

Life & Legacy

Luigi Carlo Giuseppe Bertero (b. Santa Vittoria d'Alba, October 14, 1789 d. April 1831, – South Pacific Ocean) was an Italian physicist, medical dictor, naturalist, botanist, bryologist and pteridologist. He explored the West Indies between 1816 and 1821 coinciding with the Venezuelan scientist and later president, José María Vargas in Puerto Rico although there is no evidence of any exchange between them. During his two voyages, February 1828 to September 1830 and between March and May 1830, he collected and described the flora of Chile. He also examined plants native to the Pacific island of Juan Fernandez, as well as Guadeloupe, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. He is presumed lost in a shipwreck while sailing from Tahiti to Chile.
Bertero´s herbarium specimens were bought after his death by the joint stock company Unio Itineraria and distributed among its members in the exsiccata-like series Unio itineraria 1835.