He was born in Italy in 1836, in the town of Vicenza in the province of
Venice. When he was twenty years old, in 1856, he entered the Order of the
Society of Jesus, and went to study
theology at the
Innsbruck, Austria. He also studied philosophy, languages and natural sciences. He was one of the first botanists to truly collect and identify specimens in the field. He is one of the protagonists of the
Golden age of Ecuadorian botany which started in 1870 when Ecuadorian
Ecuadorian President and aristocrat
Gabriel García Moreno brought members of a
German Jesuits Order to manage the
National Polytechnic School and the
Quito Astronomical Observatory in Quito. The group consisted of naturalist
Theodor Wolf, astronomer
Juan Bautista Menten, architect José Kolberg, José Epping, chemist Luis Dressel and botanist Luis Sodiro. Sodiro taught courses at the school as well as in the
Central University in Quito and where he replaced
Professor Jameson. His botanical work was based on the collection of plant specimens from throughout Ecuador but with special emphasis on the surroundings of Quito including those on mountain peaks such as
Corazón and
Pichincha. Carried out over thirty-eight years. The results of his findings were published in monographs, booklet catalogs, and articles. It followed the botanic classification established by
A. P. de Candolle in his work
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. He had collected many specimens and then sent them to
Kew to be later recorded and described by English botanist
J. G. Baker. During his career, he gifted a total of 4226 specimens to the Central University of Ecuador. He also donated his
herbarium to
St. Gabriel College, Quito, which was later concentrated in the
Ecuadorian Library Aurelio Espinosa Polit (QPLS). There are approximately 20,000 specimens of which approximately 13,500 have been preserved to date. His life suddenly changed after the murder of President García Moreno in 1876, as the Polytechnic School closed its doors. President
Antonio Borrero he had offered to continue with the university but the revolution started by
Ignacio de Veintemilla prevented it. Then Sodiro went to live in the Jesuit school in Pifo, as Professor of Humanities. He was very intelligent and had a prodigious memory. He knew great excerpts from
Virgil and
Horacio so he also stood among his fellow teaching staff. In 1883, he wrote a book,
Recensio Crytogamarum Vascularium Quitensium. He also wrote in 1890–1893,
Cryptogamae Vasculares Quitenses Adiectis Speciebus in Aliis Provinciis Ditionis Ecudorensis Hactenus Detectis which described all known
Pteridophyte (
Ferns) in the area. He became the first director of the
Quito Botanical Garden in 1889, which was founded by her personal friend Marieta de Veintimilla wife of the President, Ignacio de Veintimilla. President
José María Plácido Caamano named him the "Botanist of the Nation" in order to honor his scientific and humanistic work, especially in botany through the books and his publications. Luis was always philanthropic and voluntarily helped beekeepers in that country. Manuel María Pólit asked him to review
Historia del Reino de Quito, written by
Juan de Velasco (1727–1792) in order to identify and classify the plants and animals that Velasco had included in his work. Unfortunately due to his health, Sodiro failed to finish his review. His botanical knowledge was recognized and he published in scientific journals such as the
Botanische Jahrbucher fur Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Planzengeograpie in Germany. He also published in the Chilean Journal of Natural History. ==Selected publications==