Vladimir Ippolitovich Lipsky or Volodymyr Ipolytovych Lypsky (russian: Владимир Ипполитович Липский; uk, Володимир Іполитович Липський; 11 March 1863 – 24 February 1937) was a Ukrainian scientist,

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 ...

; a member of

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...

(in 1922–1928, its President) and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the Director of the Botanical Gardens of the Odessa University.

Birth and education

Vladimir was born on 11 March 1863 in the village of Samostrely (now

Korets Raion Korets Raion ( uk, Корецький район) was a raion in Rivne Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center was the town of Korets. The raion was abolished and its territory was merged into Rivne Raion on 18 July 2020 as part of th ...

of Rivne Oblast). His father, grandfather and great grandfather were clergymen. The Lipsky family moved to Zhitomir in 1873. Vladimir studied at the Volhynian Gymnasium; he graduated from

Pavlo Galagan Collegium Paul () is a common masculine given name in countries and ethnicities with a Christian heritage (Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism) and, beyond Europe, in Christian religious communities throughout the world. Paul – or its variation ...

(magna cum laude) in 1881, and Kyiv University in 1887. The formation of Vladimir Lipsky as a scientist was considerably influenced by Johannes Schmalhausen, who headed the Chair of Plant Taxonomy and Morphology.

Career

From 1887 to 1894 Vladimir Lipsky worked with the Botanical Garden of Kyiv University first as conservator, then as assistant at the Chair of Botanics. He took part in scientific expeditions to the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and Northern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

from 1889. Between 1894 and 1917, Lipsky worked with the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden as Junior and Senior Conservator of the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

, Chief Botanist, and eventually Head of the Living Plants Department. Lipsky participated in scientific expeditions to the

, Altai and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

conducting detailed studies of the

Alpine flora Alpine flora may refer to: * Alpine tundra, a community of plants that live at high altitude * Alpine plant Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different pl ...

of the regions. In 1917 he returned to Ukraine and actively participated in the creation of the

, holding the Botany Chair of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was the President of the Academy from 1922 to 1928. Between 1928 and 1933 he was the Director of the Botanical Gardens of the Odessa University in Odessa.

Research

Vladimir did research in the fields of floristics,

plant taxonomy Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

and

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...

of plants, herbarium work, principles of organization of

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 ...

s, history of

botany 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 w ...

. He became one of the first botanists to provide scientific descriptions of the

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

, and

. In particular, Vladimir Lipsky described 4 new

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

, and 220 new

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 ...

of plant, 45 of which are named after him. He also authored 82 printed works.

First Kyiv period

Upon graduation from the University, Vladimir participated in numerous scientific expeditions:

Podolia Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...

Bessarabia Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

and

. Lipsky's first academic work appeared in 1889: ''Research in Flora of Bessarabia'' (russian: Исследование о флоре Бессарабии, ''Issledovaniye o flore Bessarabii''), where, inter alia, a new species of plants was described: Valerianella bessarabica. Vladimir published a number of his reports on his expeditions at the ''Proceedings of Kyiv Society of Nature Researchers'' («Записки Київського товариства дослідників природи», ''Zapiski Kyivskogo Tovaristva Doslidnykiv Prirody''). Starting from 1889, Vladimir visited the

several times to research the plants of the region. The journeys resulted in the description of about 40 new species and

subvarieties Algebraic varieties are the central objects of study in algebraic geometry, a sub-field of mathematics. Classically, an algebraic variety is defined as the set of solutions of a system of polynomial equations over the real or complex numbers. Mo ...

of plants. In order to identify distinctive character of Caucasian flora and to do comparative studies, he also visited Northern

. Lipsky published the results of the Caucasian flora studies in his treatise ''Flora of Caucasus. A Corpus of Information about Caucasian Flora for Bicentennial Period of its Research, starting from Tournefort and ending by the 19th Century'' (''«Флора Кавказа. Свод сведений о флоре Кавказа за двухсотлетний период её исследования, начиная от Турнефора и кончая XIX веком»''). In particular, the book lists 4,500 species of plants and provides accurate data of their distribution. The botanist described three new genera of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s: Beketowia, Orthorhiza and Schumannia. The following plants can be noted among new Caucasian plants described by Vladimir Lipsky:

Dioscorea caucasica ''Dioscorea'' is a genus of over 600 species of flowering plants in the family Dioscoreaceae, native throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. The vast majority of the species are tropical, with only a few species extending ...

Fagus orientalis ''Fagus orientalis'', commonly known as the Oriental beech, is a deciduous tree in the beech family Fagaceae. It is native to Eurasia, in Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Description ''Fagus orientalis'' is a large tree, capable of reaching he ...

, Levisticum caucasicum, Potentilla alexeenkoi, Tulipa caucasica, Hypericum ponticum, and many others.

St. Petersburg period

Starting from 1894 Lipsky worked at the botanical garden of St. Petersburg. From 1894 through 1896 he continued his studies of Caucasian plants commenced while in Kyiv. After 1896 he started researching alpine plants of

highlands. The botanist explored southern slopes of

Gissar Range Hisar Range ( tg, Қаторкӯҳи Ҳисор; uz, Hisor tizmasi, russian: Гиссарский хребет; uk, Ґаторкугі Гісор; fa, رشته‌کوه حصار; also known as Hissar, Hisor, or Gissar Range) is a mountain range ...

, Pamiro-Alai,

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

Dzungarian Alatau The Dzungarian Alatau ( mn, Зүүнгарын Алатау, ''Züüngaryn Alatau''; ; kk, Жетісу Алатауы, ''Jetısu Alatauy''; russian: Джунгарский Алатау, ''Dzhungarskiy Alatau'') is a mountain range that lies on t ...

, Kopet Dag, Fergana Valley and Zeravshan Valley, becoming the first botanist visiting many of the areas. The expeditions resulted in more than thirty works and

treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...

s, including: * ''Materials for Flora of Central Asia'' (''«Материалы для флоры Средней Азии»''); * ''Flora of Central Asia, i.e. Russian Turkestan and Bukhara and Khiva Khanates'' (''«Флора Средней Азии, то есть Русского Туркестана и ханств Бухары и Хивы»''); * ''Mountainous Bukhara'' (''«Горная Бухара»''). In those treatises Lipsky revised botanical knowledge of the above areas, rectified errors of predecessors, and described about a hundred new species and four new

: Korshinskia, Galagania, Koslovia, Ladyginia. The botanist paid much attention to the history of the Petersburg Botanical Garden and its herbaria and collections. He published the results of his research in the following works: * ''Herbarium of the Saint-Petersburg Botanical Garden by the End of 75th year of its Existence, 1823–1898'' (''«Гербарий С.-Петербургского ботанического сада к концу его 75-летнего существования, 1823–1898»''), * ''Historical Overview of Saint-Petersburg Botanical Garden, 1713–1913'' (''«Исторический очерк С.-Петербургского ботанического сада, 1713–1913»''), * ''Biographies and Literary Activities of Botanists and Persons Associated with the Botanical Garden'' (''«Биографии и литературная деятельность ботаников и лиц, соприкасавшихся с ботаническим садом»''). Bot garden Palermo by V I Lipsky Chief Botanist of Imp Bot Garden St Pet 1903

Bot garden Palermo by V I Lipsky Chief Botanist of Imp Bot Garden St Pet 1903

Between 1900 and 1902 Vladimir Lipsky visited various countries studying herbaria and botanical gardens. In total, he succeeded in visiting all

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

s of the Earth, save for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

Second Kyiv period

Upon recommendation of the first President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (UAS) Vladimir Vernadsky, on 30 December 1918, at the meeting of the UAS 2nd Physics and Mathematics Department, elected Vladimir Lipsky a director of new botanical garden in Kyiv. In addition to managing the Botanical Garden, Vladimir also chaired Flower Plant Chair of the UAS and participated actively in creation of various Academy structures, such as: * UAS Committee for Studies of Natural Wealth of Ukraine (formed in March 1919), * Committee for Studies of Ukrainian

Fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, * Publishing Committee of the 2nd UAS Department, * Encyclopedic Dictionary Committee (Head), * Committee for Audit of UAS Library. Also he represented the Academy at the Military and Industrial Committee. In 1919 Vladimir Lipsky was unanimously elected an active member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences; in 1920 he was elected a member of the UAS Board, and in 1921 its Vice President. Vladimir initiated creation of the UAS Botanical Garden, developed a plan of the Garden and started its actual creation in the yard of the Praesidium of the Academy of Sciences on Vladimirskaya Street in Kyiv. Today's Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences was formed in 1935 in the Kyiv district of Zvirynets. In August 1919, after Stepan Timoshenko, Secretary of the 2nd Department of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences left the country, Vladimir started acting as the Secretary, and in October 1921 he was elected Vice President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. On a general meeting of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences held 12 June 1922, Vladimir Lipsky was elected its President. Attempts by

Soviet authorities The Government of the Soviet Union ( rus, Прави́тельство СССР, p=prɐˈvʲitʲɪlʲstvə ɛs ɛs ɛs ˈɛr, r=Pravítelstvo SSSR, lang=no), formally the All-Union Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly ab ...

to influence the activities of scientific institutions affected Lipsky's fate too. In order to examine the work of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, a commission of the Ukrainian People's Commissariat of Education was formed. In its findings the commission accused the management of the Academy, and first of all the Presidium headed by Lipsky, of failure to comply with Soviet laws, and charged them with political violations. The commission suggested immediate re-election of the President of the Academy, rerunning the procedure of confirming membership in the Academy, and establishing a rigid structure and personnel pool for the Academy. Communist Party leaders thought Vladimir Lipsky to be a 'politically inert' President, who delegated management of the Academy to

Serhiy Yefremov Serhiy Yefremov ( uk, Сергій Єфремов; October 18, 1876 – March 31, 1939) was a Ukrainian literary journalist, historian, critic, political activist, statesman, and academician. He was a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Scie ...

and Ahatanhel Krymsky. In 1928 Vladimir sent in his resignation from the position of the President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Odessa period

On 21 June 1928, having resigned as the President of the Academy, Vladimir Lipsky moved to

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

, where he headed the

Odessa Botanical Garden Odesa Botanical Garden is a botanical garden in Odesa, Ukraine. It is subordinated to Odesa University and consists of two territories: old territory and new territory. History The Botanical Garden in Odesa was established in 1820, on the initi ...

. During his work in Odessa, he greatly contributed to the research in the Botanical Garden and its expansion, training of young researchers and sorting and arranging the

. During 1927–1930 he studied

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

(in particular, in the vicinity of , researched influence of vegetation of the Atmanaysky estuary in the

Azov Sea The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, ...

on saline formation and deposition; he participated in the work of the Ukrainian Institute for

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...

and rubber plants. He was particularly interested in the studies of red Phyllophora. This

became raw material to manufacture

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

and agar-agar, which were then imported from abroad. So called

expeditions in the Black Sea were carried out in 1930–1931 on board of Sirena yacht, Drug Zhizni and Lyskovsky ships, and as a result, thanks to Vladimir Lipsky's efforts, the first in Ukraine iodine plant was opened in 1931 in Odessa. Vladimir was Odessa Botanical Garden Director until 1933, then he resigned in protest against the ideas of Trofim Lysenko and until his death he worked as a scientific consultant of the Odessa Botanical Garden. He made his last research trip to

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

and

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

in 1936. Vladimir Lipsky died on 24 February 1937 in Odessa.

Some plants discovered by or named after Vladimir Lipsky

Artemisia lipskyi Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

Inula magnifica Lipsky

Memory

Two new genera were named after Vladimir Lipsky: '' Lipskya'' of family Apiaceae, and '' Lipskyella'' of family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. 54 new species of plants were named after Vladimir Lipsky (including Stipa lipskyi, Euphorbia lipskyi, Thymus lipskyi, Acer lipskyi),International Plant Names Index
/ref> which were included into floristic collections of all countries. During the 1950s, the grave and tombstone of Vladimir Lipsky were destroyed and the place of his burial was lost. Only upon request of the Presidium of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, in 1990 the Executive Committee of the Odessa City Council issued a decree memorializing Academic Vladimir Lipsky.

Sources

* Шеляг-Сосонко Ю. Р., Зиман С. М. (1983) Видатний флорист і організатор науки. До 120-річчя від дня народження В. І. Липського. In: Вісник АН УРСР, vol. 9, Ю. Р. Шеляг-Сосонко, С. М. Зиман. – P. 94–96. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Крецул Н. І. Кандидатська дисертація з історії �пеціальність 07.00.07 – історія науки і техніки, УДК 929:58 (091) 2005. ІСТОРИКО-НАУКОВИЙ АНАЛІЗ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ АКАДЕМІКА В. І. ЛИПСЬКОГО В КОНТЕКСТІ РОЗВИТКУ БОТАНІЧНОЇ НАУКИ В УКРАЇНІ. Центр досліджень науково-технічного потенціалу та історії науки ім. Г. М. Доброва НАН України
Текст автореферату
''(in Ukrainian)'' * Береговий П. М. Володимир Іполитович Липський / П. М. Береговий, М. А. Лагутіна // Видатні вітчизняні ботаніки. — Вид. 2-е. — К., 1969. — С. 119–123. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Доброчаєва Д. М. Життя, повне сонця і тепла / Д. М. Доброчаєва, Г. П. Мокрицький // Аксіоми для нащадків : укр. імена у світовій науці. — Л., 1991. — С. 169–185. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Липский Владимир Ипполитович / Т. П. Бабий, Л. Л. Коханова, Г. Г. Костюк � др.// Биологи : биогр. справ. — К., 1984. — С. 373–374. ''(in Russian)'' * Осіюк Л. Дослідження вищих рослин ученими Київського університету св. Володимира / Л. Осіюк // Біологія і хімія в шк. — 1999. — No. 5. — С. 47. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Салівон А. Володимир Іполитович Липський (1863–1937) / А. Салівон // Біологія і хімія в шк. — 1998 .— No. 4 .— С. 41–42. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Шендеровський В. Неперевершений знавець природи / В. Шендеровський // Уряд. кур’єр .— 2003 .— 19 лип. — С. 11. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Крецул Н. І. Роль гербарію в науковій діяльності Липського В. І. 1887–1917 рр. // Історія української науки на межі тисячоліть: 3б. наук. праць /Відпов. ред. О. Я. Пилипчук. — Київ, 2001. — Вип. 5. — С. 120–124. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Крецул Н. І. В. І. Липський − організатор ботанічних садів // Історія української науки на межі тисячоліть: 3б. наук. праць /Відпов. ред. О. Я. Пилипчук. – Київ, 2001. – Вип. 6. — С. 94–99. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Крецул Н. І. Володимир Липський про ботанічні сади Європи //Історія української науки на межі тисячоліть: 3б. наук. праць /Відпов. ред. О. Я. Пилипчук. — Київ, 2002. — Вип. 7. — С. 120–126. ''(in Ukrainian)'' * Крецул Н. І. Флористичні дослідження В.І. Липського // Історія української науки на межі тисячоліть: 3б. наук. праць /Відпов. ред. О. Я. Пилипчук. — Київ, 2002. — Вип. 8. — С. 157–163. ''(in Ukrainian)''

References

External references

Vladimir I. Lipsky and his family tree in Rodovid.org

''(in Ukrainian)''
''Клим Щербатий''. Фахівець ботанічних садів.
(An expert in botanic gardens) «Обрій ПІБ» — Газета АКБ Промінвестбанк. ''(in Ukrainian)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipsky, Vladimir 1863 births 1937 deaths People from Rivne Oblast People from Volhynian Governorate Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Ukrainian botanists 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire Soviet botanists Presidents of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences