Ivan Ivanovich Lepyokhin (Иван Иванович Лепёхин; , in

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 ...

– , in Saint Petersburg) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

. He began his studies in the Academy of Sciences of Saint-Petersburg and gained his doctorate at faculty of medicine of the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

. In 1768 he explored the

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

region and the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. In 1769 he went to the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

which he explored for five years. In 1774 and 1775 he explored

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Ivan Lepekhin was the Secretary of the

Russian Academy The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy () was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia and princess Dashkova as a research center for Russian language and Russian literature, following the example ...

since 1783. His extensive journals, revised and completed by Nikolay Ozeretskovsky, were published in 4 hefty volumes between 1771 and 1805. Lepekhin was in charge of the

Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden The main Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, officially known as the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Komarov Botanical Institute's Botanical Garden of Peter the Great (); since 1823 Emperor's Botanical Garden "Императорский Б ...

from 1774 until his death. In 1804, his name was honoured in the name ''

Lepechinia ''Lepechinia'' is a genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It includes several species of plants known commonly as pitchersages (also pitcher sages). Plants of this genus can be found in Central and South America, Mexico, California, Hisp ...

'' from South America, (in the family

Lamiaceae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle, or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil (herb), ba ...

) by

Carl Ludwig von Willdenow Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was also ...

, and then in 1953,

Mikhail Grigorevich Popov Mikhail Grigorevich Popov () (5(17) April, 1893 – 18 December, 1955) was a Soviet botanist. He is known for developing a theory on the role of hybridization in plant evolution, and studying the flora of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Ep ...

published a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from Central Asia, belonging to the family

Boraginaceae Boraginaceae, the Borago, borage or forget-me-not family, includes about 2,000 species of shrubs, trees, and herbs in 146 to 154 genus, genera with a worldwide distribution. The APG IV system from 2016 classifies the Boraginaceae as single famil ...

as ''

Lepechiniella ''Lepechiniella'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae. Its native range is Iran and Western Himalaya, to Xinjiang (in China). It is also found in the countries of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Taji ...

'' also in his honour.

References

*Robert Zander, Fritz Encke, Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold ''Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen''. 13. Auflage. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Lepekhin, Ivan Ivanovitch Ornithologists from the Russian Empire 18th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 18th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Members of the Russian Academy Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences 1740 births 1802 deaths