He collected more than 1,300 botanical specimens, and between voyages worked as a professor of medicine in Uppsala, superintendent of the Cabinet of Natural Science, and a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science. His Museum Carlsonianum (1786–9) contains 100 plates of birds from all over the world. His magnifi cent large folio Svensk ornithologie med efter naturen colorerade tekningar (Swedish ornithology), published in 11 parts between 1805 and 1816, was never completed – the text stops in mid-sentence on page 44 of the last part.

Sparrmannia africana, African Hemp, is named after Dr Anders (Andreas) Sparrman (1748–1820), Swedish physician, botanist and pupil of Linnaeus. He went to Uppsala University aged nine and commenced the study of medicine at the age of 14. He travelled to and in China (1765–7) as the ship’s doctor (aged 17). He published Resp dissertatio academica sistens iter in Chinam (1768, A journey in China) as his student dissertation for his graduation at Uppsala. After graduating, he received a stipendium regium (royal scholarship) with support from Linnaeus to botanise in South Africa, where he spent much of his time as a teacher, botanising with Thunberg and a Hottentot guide when he could. When Captain Cook, in the Resolution, on his way to botanise in Antarctica and Tahiti, stopped in South Africa in 1772, Sparrman joined the expedition. He described it in A voyage to the Cape of Good Hope towards the Antarctic polar circle, round the world and to the country of the Hottentots and the Caffres from the year 1772–6 (1785; 2 vols – Swedish edition in 1783). He returned to South Africa in 1775–6 and, trying to keep his medical expertise up to date, translated Underrättelser om barn-sjukdomar och deras bote-medel (1764) by Nicholas Rosen von Rosenstein from Swedish into English as The diseases of children and their remedies (1776). In his letters back to Linnaeus, he often complained of his problems in collecting.

Sparrmannia africana, a large, deciduous shrub found at forest margins and in damp ravines in South Africa, is a member of the Malvaceae family. It has large heart-shaped leaves and clusters of refl exed white blooms with conspicuous, yellow and purple stamens which move when touched. As it is not hardy it grows here in a pot which is plunged into a border in summer and overwintered in a heated glasshouse during winter. Seed can be sown under glass in spring. (Clare Beacham)

It is used as a medicine and has environmental uses.

Originally described as 'Sparmannia', this is an orthographic error as Dr Sparrman's name is spelt with two 'R's, so corrected to 'Sparrmannia'. See GRIN (Germplasm Resources InformationNetwork) Taxonomy for plants - Sparmannia". USDA Agricultural Research Service

Family changed from Tiliaceae to Malvaceae Plants of the World Online, Kew Science

African Hemp is no relation of ‘hemp’, as in Cannabis sativa, and has no medicinal or herbal use, but its hairy leaves can cause dermatitis. It has touch-sensitive flowers – a slight touch and after a second the cluster of golden stamens moves sharply outwards away from the stigma. The movements brush the pollinator and, possibly, ensure that more pollen is removed. In 1993 an asteroid in the main asteroid belt was named Sparrman 16646 by EW Elst of the CERGA observatory in France.