Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

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KOMAROV BOTANICAL INSTITUTE of the Russian Academy of Sciences, situated at 2 Professora Popova Street, one of the leading botanical centres in the world. It was founded in 1931 on the basis of the Main Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum of the Academy of Sciences, which have the status of institute departments. The institute was named after V. L. Komarov in 1940. Its major research areas include plant taxonomy, floristic plant geography and cartography, geobotany, phytocoenology, paleobotany, etc. The institute's herbarium has over six million leaves including plant samples from pharaoh tombs, plants collected under Peter the Great, and nearly all species of flora found in Russia and various regions of the Earth. The library includes over 550,000 volumes. The institute engaged in new activities during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 such as constructing military geobotanical maps, developing techniques for interpreting aerial photographs of tundra, forests, and swamps, developing methods for collecting and processing sphagnous moss used as antiseptic dressing, fir needles used to make vitamin tea, etc. Institute buildings suffered from artillery bombardments, 80 % of the greenhouse collection was destroyed. There is a memorial plaque erected in the assembly hall in memory of the institute members who fell during the Great Patriotic War. Many prominent botanists worked at the institute in various years including V. L. Komarov, N. I. Kuznetsov, and A. A. Elenkin. The institute publishes Proceedings, annuals, and serials such as the List of Herbarium Plants of Russia and Contiguous Countries, Plants of Central Asia, and Flora of Eastern Europe published since 1898, 1963, and 1974, respectively.

Reference: От Аптекарского огорода до Ботанического института: Очерки по истории Ботанич. ин-та АН СССР. М.; Л., 1957.

O. N. Ansberg. Professora Popova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
От Аптекарского огорода до Ботанического института: Очерки по истории Ботан. ин-та АН СССР. М.; Л., 1957 Botanical Museum