Alexander Alexandrovich Elenkin (1873–1942, ) was a

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

ologist in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. He was born in Warsaw and took his degree in botany at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

, graduating in 1893. He became an assistant there in 1898. The next year he became conservator and director of the

Cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name ''Cryptogamae'') is a plant, in the broad sense of the word, or a plant-like organism that share similar characteristics, such as being multicellular, photosynthetic, and primarily immobile, that reproduces via sp ...

ic Department at the Imperial Botanic Garden of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Since 1901 Elenkin issued the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

series ''Lichenes florae Rossiae et regionum confinium orientalium''. In 1931 the Botanic Garden was merged into the Botanical Institute and he became a professor there. He is known as the "father of Russian lichenology" and wrote many works on the subject. He died in 1942, in

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

, where he temporarily lived and worked with all the rest of the staff of the Botanical Institute while being in evacuation status from Leningrad. F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elenkin, Alexander Lichenologists from the Russian Empire Scientists from Warsaw 1873 births 1942 deaths University of Warsaw alumni Soviet botanists Soviet mycologists

See also

References