Boris Fedtschenko | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Boris Alexeevich Fedtschenko (1872-12-27)27 December 1872 |
| Died | 29 September 1947(1947-09-29) (aged 74) Leningrad, Soviet Union |
| Occupation(s) | Plant pathologist,botanist |
Boris Alexeevich Fedtschenko (27 December 1872 – 29 September 1947) was a Russianplant pathologist andbotanist. He is primarily known for his work on various regions of Russia, especially the Caucasus, Siberia and Asiatic Russia. He was also head botanist at the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden.
Boris Fedtschenko was the son of botanistsOlga Fedtschenko andAlexei Pavlovich Fedchenko.[1] He was born inLeipzig, while his parents were on an expedition in Western Europe.[2] In 1873, eight months after he was born, Alexei was killed in a climbing accident onMont Blanc.
Olga studied natural sciences at theUniversity of Moscow.[2] Between 1891 and 1892, she undertook the first of many trips with her son, going first to theUral Mountains.[2] In the summer of 1893, they explored theCrimea twice, 17 to 28 June, then July 29 to August 1. They made a large circular botanical voyage around the Crimean Mountains and collected in theSevastopol area.[3]
In 1894, they exploredTranscaucasia. In 1897, they studied the flora of the westernTian Mountains.[2] Between 1898 and 1899, Fedtschenko became a botanist at theImperial Botanic Garden in St Petersburg.[4] In 1901, Olga and Boris went on a botanical expedition in thePamir Mountain range. Later they publishedMateriaux pour la flore du Caucase (1901),Flora of the Pamirs (1901) andConspectus Florae Turkestanicae (1913),[1] which covered 4145 species.[4]
Between 1899 and 1904, their large collections (including 700+ specimens from SW Crimea) were carefully studied and completely reflected in a series of papers.[3] The plant collection was later given to the Botanic Garden, and is now one of its most notable collections.[5]
By 1902, he was the head of the botanic garden'sherbarium. This also meant he was responsible for editing the garden's periodical (Bulletin of the Imperial Institute), which was started in 1919. It conducted fieldwork in Central Asia during the 1920s, which added species information to the Flora SSSR project.
He also published several works inTrudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk. Bot. Sada (Proceedings of the St.Petersburg Botanical Garden), includingEritrichium pamiricum in 1903, based on the expeditions.[6]
In 1904, he publishedNovitae florae Turkestanciae,[7] which was also translated into German in 1914 -Übersicht sämtlicher bis jetzt für den Russischen Turkestan.[8]
In 1908, he stopped the publication of the botanic garden's journalBotanicheskij Zhurnal (Ботаническiй Журналъ), which had been published from 1906 to 1908. With the help ofalgologist andmycologist Alexandr Alexandrovich Elenkin and botanistAlexander Flyorov, Fedtschenko started a new independent journal calledJournal Russe de Botanique (Русскій ботаническiй журналъ). It published issues eight times a year, until 1915 when World War 1 started and financial cutbacks had to be made.[9]
Between 1908 and 1910, Fedtschenko and Flyorov publishedFlora Evropejskoj Rossii (Flora of the European Part of Russia), which contained 3,542 new species. This large piece of work also had contributions from other botanists.[10]
In 1907, 1908 and 1910, they also published the three-part volumeOkskaya Flora (Flora of the Oka).[10]
After they published theFlora volumes, they were criticized by several botanists including, F.S. Nenyukov,N.I. Kusnezov andEduard Regel, due to its very short descriptions. But this made the books very compact and portable, and therefore very widely used.[10]
In 1910 and 1915, Boris and his mother (now aged 70), returned toTurkestan for more plant hunting expeditions.[2] Hisexsiccata seriesFlora Turkestanica exsiccata was issued between 1915 and 1917.[11]
In 1930, he attended the Fifth International Botanical Congress held at theImperial Institute, inLondon. He attended the International Congress of Tropical Agriculture and Colonial Development (discussing cotton in Egypt).[12]
Boris collaborated with many institutions, includingBerlin Botanical Garden andBotanical Garden of Geneva.[2]
Also in 1930, Fedtschenko started organising botanists around Russia to survey plants and report their findings to create a national plant survey.[1]
In 1931, the Imperial Botanic Garden and Imperial Botanical Museum were merged to create theKomarov Botanical Institute.Vladimir Komarov was head of the museum and, as such, outranked Fedtschenko. He then took over responsibility for theFlora SSSR project and became its editor-in-chief. Eventually the thirty-volume project was completed and published in 1964, after Fedtschenko had died in 1947. The volumes covered some 17,500 plant species, and represented a huge step forwards for Russian botany.[1]
Boris Fedtschenko died on 29 September 1947 in Leningrad (now calledSt Petersburg).[13]
The specific epithetfedtschenkoi honors botanist Boris Fedtschenko.[4][14][15] The epithetfedtschenkoanus also refers to him,[16] butfedtschenkoi refers to his father's and mother's work.
Significant other works of the 1900s include:
He is the botanical author of many species of plant and tree, includingAbies sibirica var.semenovii (1899),[18]Echinops tschimganicus(1911),Gypsophila bucharica(1911),[19]Nephrodium amurense (1918),[20] andSaussurea turgaiensis (1910).[21]
He is mentioned inD.J. Mabberley's portable plant books of 1997.[23][24]
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