Franz Speta (22 December 1941 – 5 December 2015) was an Austrian botanist. He specialized in bulbous plants, especially the

Hyacinthaceae Scilloideae (named after the genus ''Scilla'', "squill") is a subfamily of bulbous plants within the family ''Asparagaceae''. Scilloideae is sometimes treated as a separate family Hyacinthaceae, named after the genus '' Hyacinthus''. Scilloideae o ...

Career

Speta worked as an apprentice for a clerk. He then studied at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

in the Department of Botany and Zoology. He wrote among professors such as

Lothar Geitler Lothar Geitler (18 May 1899 – 1 May 1990) was an Austrian botanist and cytologist. He was born in Vienna. His main research interests included blue-green algae (Cyanophyta), diatoms, lichen symbioses and chromosome structure. The cyanobacter ...

and Tschermak Woess about the "evolution and karyology of elaiosomes to fruit and seeds." In 1972, he received a Ph.D. From 1970, he was a research associate at the Upper Austrian Provincial Museum Linz, initially as Head of botany and invertebrates, from 1985 as director deputy of the National Museum and 1990 to 1991 as interim director. From 1993 to 2003 he was head of the newly founded Biology Centre of the National Museum. In 1982, he received the venia legendi of Systematic Botany at the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university A public university or public college is a univ ...

. In 1994, he became the Councilor appointed.

Research

The research focus of Speta was the bulbous plants, especially the Hyacinthaceae focusing Scilla and

Ornithogalum ''Ornithogalum'' is a genus of perennial plants mostly native to southern Europe and southern Africa belonging to the family Asparagaceae. Some species are native to other areas such as the Caucasus. Growing from a bulb, species have linear ba ...

. Other subjects are the tribes Antirrhineae the

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

, and

Pinguicula ''Pinguicula'', commonly known as the butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition ...

(Lentibulariaceae). He has published about 100 scientific papers. He also has approximately 50 biographical works, primarily about botany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speta, Franz 1941 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Austrian botanists University of Salzburg alumni University of Vienna alumni