Ruggero Tomaselli (

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

, 22 August 1920 – Monzuno, 30 March 1982) was an Italian

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 ...

. He introduced the study of phytosociology to Italy.

Biography

Tomaselli was born in

on 22 August 1920. In 1943 he graduated from the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and began his university career as an assistant to the chair of

Geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

; in 1947 he was appointed assistant of the chair of Botany held by Raffaele Ciferri. In 1946 he specialized in plant

cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...

Sorbonne University Sorbonne University () is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to the Middle Ages in 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon as a constituent college of the Unive ...

and in 1948 he began working at the , under the direction of Josias Braun-Blanquet, dedicating himself to the study of phytosociology. After winning a scholarship at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

, where in 1952 he worked with the geographer A. W. Kuchler, he returned to

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

and began to study the

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

vegetation. From 1959 to 1964 he was

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

of the

Botanical Garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

of the University of Catania; from 1964 to 1982 he was director of the Institute and the Botanical Garden of Pavia. Ruggero Tomaselli is credited with having introduced the studies of phytosociology in Italy with his work ''Introduction to the Study of Phytosociology'', published in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in 1956. His research has influenced for years the activity of the Institute of Botany of the University of Pavia in the geobotanical and cartographic field: in Pavia he published the first map of the potential natural vegetation of Italy which, together with other notable studies in the phytosociological field, among which he won the presidency of the "Group of experts for the cartography of European vegetation of the Council of Europe". His research in the ecological and vegetational field was utilised in the creation of the bioclimatic map of Italy. In 1988, the Institute of Botany of the University of Pavia formally purchased his substantial book and cartographic collection (223 containers containing miscellaneous publications, 420 volumes and about 280 phytogeographic papers with frequent original notes by the author) of various topics (phytogeography, cartography, ecology, plant physiology, etc.). Tomaselli also did some taxonomical work in the area of lichenology. Italian lichenologist Pier Luigi Nimis described him as a "versatile botanist", but without having left any significant contributions to the field. Together with Raffaele Ciferri, Tomaselli published 215 alternative names for the fungal component (the mycobiont) of

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 ...

s; most of these ended in the suffix ''-myces''. The vast majority of these names were later determined to be formally illegitimate according to nomenclatural rules. Tomaselli died prematurely on 30 March 1982 in a road accident while returning from a work trip together with his colleagues Sebastiano Filipello and Mario Sacchi. As part of the XVII International Ethnobotany Symposium in

Antigua Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...

, Tomaselli was posthumously awarded the Scientific Award for 2019.

Eponyms

Species named after Tomaselli include '' Tillandsia tomasellii'' ( Bromeliaceae), and '' Dioon tomasellii'' ( Zamiaceae).

Selected works

*Ciferri, R.; Tomaselli, R. (1952). Saggio di una sistematica micolichenologica. Atti Ist. Bot. Pavia serie 5, 10: 25–84 *Ciferri, R.; Tomaselli, R. (1953). Tentative mycolichenes classification. Atti dell'Istituto Botanico della Università e Laboratorio Crittogamico di Pavia, serie 5, 10 (1): 25–84 * *Ciferri, R.; Tomaselli, R. (1955). Sulla Nomenclatura del fungo simbionte dei licheni. Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano, N.S. 62 (3–4): 501–504 *Tomaselli, R.; Ciferri, R. (1954). Scissioni di generi di licheni sulla base delle caratteristiche del fungo. Atti Ist. Bot. Univ. Pavia, serie 5, 12 (1): 30–69 *Ciferri, R.; Tomaselli, R. (1957). Prospetto di una sistematica micolichenologica. Atti Ist. Bot. Univ. Pavia, serie 5, 14 (1-3): 247–262 *Tomaselli, R. (1950). Appunti sulla Sistematica e distribuzione geografica dei basidiolicheni. Archivio Botanico per la Sistematica, Fitogeografia e Genetica 26: 100–116 * *Tomaselli, R. (1957). Modalitá di crescita di vari ceppi Italiani di Xanthoriomyces (fungo lichenizzante). Atti Dell Istituto Botanico dell'Università di Pavia, serie 5, 12 (3–4): 320–359 *Tomaselli, R. (1962). Considerazioni sulla posizione sistemica degli ascomiceti simbionti nei licheni. Atti. Accad. Gioenia, serie 6, 14: 168–199 *Tomaselli, R. (1964). Raffaele Ciferri (1897–1964). Atti Ist. Bot. Univ. Lab. Crittogam. Pavia, serie 5, Supl. 21: 55 pp.

References

*Giovanna Giomaro, Ruggero Tomaselli, in Tonelli A., Maestri di ateneo: i docenti dell'Università di Urbino nel Novecento, Urbino, Quattroventi, 2013, ISBN 9788839209825 *Balduzzi A., 1982. In memoria di Ruggero Tomaselli, Sebastiano Filipello, Mario Sacchi. Atti st. Bot. e Lab. Critt. Ser. 7, v.1: 5–23 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomaselli, Ruggero 1920 births 1982 deaths People from Trento 20th-century Italian botanists University of Pavia alumni Road incident deaths in Italy