Giuseppe Gibelli (9 February 1831 – 16 September 1898) was an Italian

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 ...

and lichenologist who was a native of

Santa Cristina e Bissone Santa Cristina e Bissone is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Pavia, Lombardy, northern Italy, located about 45 km southeast of Milan and about 25 km southeast of Pavia. Santa Cristina e Bissone borders the following muni ...

. He originally studied medicine, earning his medical doctorate at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...

. Later he studied botany and

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

in Germany. He became a professor of botany at the Universities of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

(1874) and

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

(1879), and from 1883 to 1898 was a professor of botany and director 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, an ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. Gibelli is remembered for his pioneer studies of

mycorrhiza A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

, the

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

association between fungus and plant roots. With Giovanni Passerini (1816-1893) and

Vincenzo de Cesati Vincenzo de Cesati (1806–1883) was an Italian botanist from Milan. He studied natural history and law at the University of Vienna, and afterwards worked as a volunteer at the Collegium Nacionale de Vercelli. From 1868 to 1883 he was direc ...

(1806-1883), he was co-author of ''Compendio della flora italiana'', a

compendium A compendium (plural: compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a s ...

Italian flora The flora of Italy is all the plant life present in the territory of the Italian Republic. The flora of Italy was traditionally estimated to comprise about 5,500 vascular plant species. However, , 7,672 species are recorded in the second edition ...

. He is honoured in the naming of '' Gibellia'' (1886), which is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

within the Melanconidaceae family, ''

Gibellina Gibellina (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Jibbiddina'', Arabic: "little mount" - جبل صغير) is a small city and ''comune'' in the Province of Trapani, the mountains of central Sicily, Italy. It was destroyed by the 1968 Belice earthquake. ...

'' (1886), which is a genus of fungi in the family

Magnaporthaceae The Magnaporthaceae are a family of fungi in the order Magnaporthales. It was circumscribed by Paul F. Cannon in 1994 for a group of grass-associated fungi centered on ''Magnaporthe'' (''Nakataea''). Magnaporthaceae have a harpophora-like asexual ...

, and also ''Gibellula'' (1894), which is a genus of fungi in the family

Cordycipitaceae The Cordycipitaceae are a family of parasitic fungi in the Ascomycota, class Sordariomycetes and order Hypocreales. The family was first published in 1969 by mycologist Hanns Kreisel, but the naming was invalid according to the code of Internati ...

. Then in 1959, '' Gibellulopsis'', a genus of fungi belonging to the family Plectosphaerellaceae.

References

Dipartimento di Botanica - Università di Catania
(biography translated from Italian)

External links

* 1831 births 1898 deaths University of Pavia alumni Academic staff of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Academic staff of the University of Bologna Italian lichenologists 19th-century Italian botanists {{Italy-botanist-stub