Josias Braun-Blanquet (3 August 1884 – 20 September 1980) was an influential

phytosociologist Phytosociology, also known as phytocoenology or simply plant sociology, is the study of groups of species of plant that are usually found together. Phytosociology aims to empirically describe the vegetative environment of a given territory. A speci ...

and

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. Braun-Blanquet was born in Chur,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and died in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, France.

Biography

Work

In Josias Braun-Blanquet's dissertation, supervised by

Charles Flahault Charles Henri Marie Flahault (3 October 1852 – 3 February 1935) was a French botanist, among the early pioneers of phytogeography, phytosociology, and forest ecology. The word '' relevé'' for a plant community sample is his invention. Early li ...

, he worked on the phytosociology of the southern Cévennes. Subsequently he established the modern way of classifying vegetation according to floristic composition. This is what makes him one of the most influential botanists until today.Nicolson, M. (1993). National Styles, Divergent Classifications: A comparative case study from the history of French and American plant ecology. Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Science Past and Present, 8, 139-186. Braun-Blanquet's way of classifying a plant community uses the

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of its most characteristic

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

as namesake, changing the ending of the generic name to "-etum" and treating the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

. Thus, a particular type of mesotrophic grassland widespread in western

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and dominated only by

false oat-grass ''Arrhenatherum elatius'', with the common names bulbous oat grass, false oat-grass, tall oat-grass, tall meadow oat, onion couch and tuber oat-grass, is a species of perennial grass, native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. This bun ...

(''Arrhenatherum elatius'') becomes

Arrhenatheretum elatioris __NOTOC__ British NVC community MG1, ''Arrhenatherum elatius'' grassland, is one of the Mesotrophic grasslands in the British National Vegetation Classification system, mesotrophic grassland Terminology used in connection with the British National ...

Br.-Bl.. To distinguish between similar plant communities dominated by the same species, other important species are included in the name which otherwise is formed according to the same rules. Another type of mesotrophic

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

land – also widespread in western Europe but dominated by

black knapweed ''Centaurea nigra'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names lesser knapweed, common knapweed and black knapweed. A local vernacular name is hardheads. It is native to Europe but it is known on other ...

(''

Centaurea nigra ''Centaurea nigra'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names lesser knapweed, common knapweed and black knapweed. A local vernacular name is hardheads. It is native to Europe but it is known on other ...

'') and crested dog's-tail (''Cynosurus cristatus'') – is consequently named

Centaureo-Cynosuretum cristati British NVC community MG5 (''Cynosurus cristatus - Centaurea nigra'' grassland) is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drain ...

Br.-Bl. & Tx.. If the second species is characteristic but notably less dominant than the first one, its genus name may be used as the adjective, for example in Pterocarpetum rhizophorosus, a type of

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, Herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or ...

near water which has abundant ''

Pterocarpus officinalis ''Pterocarpus officinalis'', the dragonsblood tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to southern Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It is typically found in coastal freshwater or slig ...

'' and significant (though not overwhelmingly prominent) red mangrove (''Rhizophora mangle'').

Awards

*1974:

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

Publications

*Braun-Blanquet, Josias (1964): ''Pflanzensoziologie, Grundzüge der Vegetationskunde''. (3. Auflage). Springer Verlag, Wien, 865 pages. *
La Végétation alpine des Pyrénées Orientales, étude de phyto-sociologie comparée
' (Monografías de la Estación de Estudios Pirenaicos y del Instituto Español de Edafología, Ecología y Fisiología Vegetal, 9 (Bot. 1). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Barcelona, 1948). *
Las comunidades vegetales de la depresión del Ebro y su dinamismo
', con

Oriol de Bolòs Oriol de Bolòs i Capdevila (born 16 March 1924 in Olot; died 22 March 2007 in Barcelona) was a Spanish botanist, pteridologist, and phytosociologist. He was a specialist in the flora of Catalonia and Spain, and also of the Mediterranean regions, ...

(Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1987).

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Braun-Blanquet, Josias 1884 births 1980 deaths Swiss phytogeographers 20th-century Swiss botanists University of Montpellier faculty Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies People from Chur Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences