Franz Josef Ruprecht (1 November 1814 – 4 April 1870) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n-born physician and

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 ...

active in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, where he was known as Frants Ivanovič Ruprekht ().

Life

He was born in

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, and grew up in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, where he studied, and graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1836. After a short period in medical practice in Prague, he was appointed curator of the herbarium of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

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 1839. In July and August 1841, together with a colleague, professor Sawelhaw of the Russian Academy, he organised and accompanied an expedition to the island to Kolguyev Island in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

.Trevor-Battye, Aubyn. (1895). ''Ice-bound on Kolguev'', Constable, London, 1895. He served as assistant director 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 ...

between 1851 and 1855, and professor of botany in 1855 at the

University of Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

.Darwin Correspondence
Franz Josef Ruprecht
/ref> He died in Saint Petersburg in 1870. He described many new plants collected in the Russian Far East, including Alaska, then under Russian rule; examples include ''

Adiantum aleuticum ''Adiantum aleuticum'', the western maidenhair fern or Aleutian maidenhair, is a species of deciduous fern in the genus '' Adiantum''. Description ''A. aleuticum'' typically grows about 18-30 inches tall and wide. The fronds grow tall, and are ...

'', ''

Lonicera maackii ''Lonicera maackii'', the Amur honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae that is native to temperate eastern Asia; specifically in northern and western China south to Yunnan, Mongolia, Primorsky Krai in southeastern S ...

'', and ''

Phellodendron amurense ''Phellodendron amurense'' is a species of tree in the family Rutaceae, commonly called the Amur cork tree. It is a major source of ''huáng bò'' ( or wiktionary:黄, 黄wiktionary:檗, 檗), one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Ch ...

''.

Memorials

The genus '' Ruprechtia'' is named after him.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan .

Publications

* Ruprecht, F. J. ''Symbolae ad historiam et geographiam plantarum Rossicarum'', St. Petersburg in 1846 * Ruprecht, F. J. ''Flora Caucasi'', P. 1. St. Pétersbourg 1869 * Postels, A., Ruprecht, F.J. ''Illustrationes algarum'', Weinheim, J. Cramer 1963 * Ruprecht, F. J. ''Flora ingrica'' (flora of the Leningrad region).

References

* Extensive biography on Allg. Deutsche Biographi

*Fedotova A.A. The Origins of the Russian Chernozem Soil (Black Earth): Franz Joseph Ruprecht's ‘Geo-Botanical Researche
into the Chernozem’ of 1866
], Environment and History, 16 (2010): 271–293 Physicians from the Austrian Empire 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 1814 births 1870 deaths Demidov Prize laureates Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Scientists from Prague Emigrants from the Austrian Empire to the Russian Empire German Bohemian people Physicians from Prague Botanists from the Austrian Empire {{Russia-botanist-stub