Franz Josef Ruprecht (1 November 1814 – 4 April 1870) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born physician and botanist active in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, where he was known as Frants Ivanovič Ruprekht (russian: link=no, Франц Ива́нович Ру́прехт). He was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, and grew up in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, where he studied, and graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1836. After a short stint in medical practice in Prague, he was appointed curator of the herbarium of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1839, then assistant director of the

Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden The main Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, officially known as the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Komarov Botanical Institute's Botanical Garden of Peter the Great (russian: Ботанический сад Петра Великого Б ...

between 1851 and 1855, and professor of botany in 1855 at the

University of Saint Petersburg A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

.Darwin Correspondence
Franz Josef Ruprecht
/ref> He died in Saint Petersburg in 1870. He described many new plants collected in the Russian Far East, including Alaska, then under Russian rule; examples include '' Adiantum aleuticum'', ''

Lonicera maackii ''Lonicera maackii'', the Amur honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle in the family Caprifoliaceae that is native to temperate western Asia; specifically in northern and western China south to Yunnan, Mongolia, Primorsky Krai in southeastern S ...

'', and ''

Phellodendron amurense ''Phellodendron amurense'' is a species of tree in the family Rutaceae, commonly called the Amur cork tree. It is a major source of '' huáng bò'' ( or 黄檗), one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. The Ainu pe ...

''. The genus '' Ruprechtia'' is named after him.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan .

Publications

* Ruprecht, F. J. ''Symbolae ad historiam et geographiam plantarum Rossicarum'', St. Petersburg in 1846 * Ruprecht, F. J. ''Flora Caucasi'', P. 1. St. Pétersbourg 1869 * Postels, A., Ruprecht, F.J. ''Illustrationes algarum'', Weinheim, J. Cramer 1963 * Ruprecht, F. J. ''Flora ingrica'' (flora of the Leningrad region).

References

* Extensive biography on Allg. Deutsche Biographi

*Fedotova A.A. The Origins of the Russian Chernozem Soil (Black Earth): Franz Joseph Ruprecht's ‘Geo-Botanical Researche
into the Chernozem’ of 1866
], Environment and History, 16 (2010): 271–293 19th-century Austrian botanists 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 1814 births 1870 deaths Demidov Prize laureates Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Saint Petersburg State University faculty Scientists from Prague Austrian Empire emigrants to the Russian Empire German Bohemian people Physicians from Prague {{Russia-botanist-stub