Boris Fedtschenko

Boris Alexeevich Fedtschenko (27 December 1872 – 29 September 1947) was a Russian plant pathologist and botanist. 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.

Biography Boris Fedtschenko was the son of botanists Olga Fedtschenko and Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko. He was born in Leipzig, while his parents were on an expedition in Western Europe. In 1873, eight months after he was born, Alexei was killed in a climbing accident on Mont Blanc.

Olga studied natural sciences at the University of Moscow.

In 1894, they explored Transcaucasia. In 1897, they studied the flora of the western Tian Mountains.

By 1902, he was the head of the botanic garden's herbarium. 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 in Trudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk. Bot. Sada (Proceedings of the St.Petersburg Botanical Garden), including Eritrichium pamiricum in 1903, based on the expeditions.

In 1904, he published Novitae florae Turkestanciae, which was also translated into German in 1914 - Übersicht sämtlicher bis jetzt für den Russischen Turkestan.

In 1908, he stopped the publication of the botanic garden's journal Botanicheskij Zhurnal (Ботаническiй Журналъ), which had been published from 1906 to 1908. With the help of lichenologist, algologist and mycologist Alexandr Alexandrovich Elenkin and botanist Alexander Flyorov, Fedtschenko started a new independent journal called Journal 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.

Between 1908 and 1910, Fedtschenko and Flyorov published Flora 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.

In 1907, 1908 and 1910, they also published the three-part volume Okskaya Flora (Flora of the Oka). Plant material collected by Fedtschenko in the Samarkand Region and Bukhara Region was distributed by him under the title Iter Samarcandense Bucharicum 1913 and by Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller under the title Plantae Turkestanicae in itinere B. A. Fedtschenko per reg. Samarkand et domin. Buchara lectae a. 1913.

In 1930, he attended the Fifth International Botanical Congress held at the Imperial Institute, in London. He attended the International Congress of Tropical Agriculture and Colonial Development (discussing cotton in Egypt).

Boris collaborated with many institutions, including Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Garden of Geneva.

The specific epithet fedtschenkoi honors botanist Boris Fedtschenko. The epithet fedtschenkoanus also refers to him, but fedtschenkoi refers to his father's and mother's work.

Significant other works of the 1900s include: by Olga Fedtschenko and B. Fedtschenko (1906-1916) (1907) by B. Fedtschenko (1908-1910) by B. Fedtschenko and Alexandr F. Flyorov (1912-1924) by B. Fedtschenko and Alexandr F. Flyorov (1927-1936, index in 1938) by B. Fedtschenko and Boris K. Schischkin

He is the botanical author of many species of plant and tree, including Abies sibirica var. semenovii (1899), Echinops tschimganicus(1911), Gypsophila bucharica(1911), Nephrodium amurense (1918), and Saussurea turgaiensis (1910).

He is mentioned in D.J. Mabberley's portable plant books of 1997.

Other sources S.G. Shetler, 1967, The Komarov Botanical Institute Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): page196 Jackson, B.D., Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew (1901): page22 Lanjouw, J. & Stafleu, F.A., Index Herb. Coll. E-H (1957): page192