Józef Motyka

Józef Motyka (23 March 1900 – 6 July 1984) was a Polish botanist and lichenologist.

Early live and education Motyka was born on 23 March 1900 in Kąclowa. He obtained his PhD in 1925 at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków for his studies on the ecology of saxicolous lichens (growing on or living among rocks) in Europe.

Early career Afterwards, he spent several years researching the large lichen genus Usnea, culminating in the publication of a two-volume monograph during 1936–1938. During the Second World War he was employed in the Botanical Garden in Lwow. In 1944 he returned to his birthplace, Kąclowa, and began teaching at the Gymnasium in nearby Grybów. A year later Motyka was appointed as Director of the Plant Geography and Systematics department at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, and soon after became an associate professor. For the next decade he worked largely on the distribution and ecology of vascular plants.