František Kotlaba (20 May 1927 in Vlastiboř – 11 June 2020 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

) was a Czech botanist and mycologist.

Scientific career

After his degree in Natural Sciences and Pedagogy at the

Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

, Kotlaba received a post at the National Museum in Prague in 1957. From 1962 to 1990 he was a scientific employee of the

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes bac ...

Průhonice Průhonice is a municipality and village in Prague-West District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,800 inhabitants. It is known for Průhonice Park, which has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage ...

. Kotlaba was for a long time in the editorial staff of the journal ''Mykologické listy'' and was the author of several books, some of a popular scientific nature.

Honours

'' Kotlabaea'' which is a

genus 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 n ...

of fungi in the family

Pyronemataceae The Pyronemataceae are a family of fungi in the order Pezizales. It is the largest family of the Pezizales, encompassing 75 genera and approximately 500 species. Phylogenetic analyses does not support the prior classifications of this family, an ...

was published by

Mirko Svrček Mirko (Cyrillic script: Мирко) is a masculine given name of South Slavic origin. By Slavic languages, Slavic etymology, the name is composed of the root ''mir'' (meaning peace) and hypocorism, hypocoristic suffix ''-ko'' usual in South Slavic ...

in 1969, was named in his honour. The mycological journal ''Česká Mykologie'', to which he made numerous contributions, dedicated an edition to him on the occasion of his eightieth birthday in 2007. Also in 2007, a

Polypores Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside (see Delimitation for exceptions). They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypo ...

, ''Frantisekia'' was named after him.

Research

Kotlaba's main research areas were

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and geographical distribution and ecology of

agarics An agaric () is a type of fungus fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stalk), with lamellae (gills) on the underside of the pileus. In the UK, agarics are called "mushroom ...

and

boletes {{refimprove, date=July 2020 A bolete is a type of mushroom, or fungal fruiting body. It can be identified thanks to a unique mushroom cap. The cap is clearly different from the stem. On the underside of the cap there is usually a spongy surfa ...

. Apart from this he has published several works on mushroom conservation. With Zdenek Pouzar in 1972 he influenced fungal taxonomy by defining the mushroom families ''

Entolomataceae The Entolomataceae, also known as Rhodophyllaceae, are a large family of pink-spored terrestrial gilled mushrooms which includes the genera ''Entoloma'', '' Rhodocybe'', and ''Clitopilus''. The family collectively contains over 1500 species, th ...

'' and ''

Pluteaceae The Pluteaceae are a family of small to medium-sized mushrooms which have free gill attachment and pink spores. Members of Pluteaceae can be mistaken for members of Entolomataceae, but can be distinguished by the angled spores and attached gills ...

'' for the first time, in ''Ceská Mykologie''. These family names are still currently in use.

Eponymous taxa

*''

Frantisekia ''Frantisekia'' is a genus of wood-decay fungi in the family Steccherinaceae The Steccherinaceae are a family of about 200 species of fungi in the order Polyporales. It includes crust-like, toothed, and poroid species that cause a white ro ...

'' Spirin & Zmitr. 2007 *'' Kotlabaea'' Svrček 1969 *''

Geastrum kotlabae ''Geastrum'' (orthographical variant ''Geaster'') is a genus of puffball-like mushrooms in the family Geastraceae. Many species are known commonly as earthstars. The name, which comes from ''geo'' meaning ''earth'' and meaning ''star'', refers ...

'' V.J.Staněk 1958 *''

Junghuhnia kotlabae ''Junghuhnia kotlabae'' is a species of crust fungus in the family Steccherinaceae. It was described as a new species by Czech mycologist Zdenek Pouzar in 2003. The fungus, found in Cuba, was collected from a fallen stem of the Cuban royal palm ...

'' Pouzar 2003 *''

Pleurotus kotlabae ''Pleurotus'' is a genus of gilled mushrooms which includes one of the most widely eaten mushrooms, '' P. ostreatus''. Species of ''Pleurotus'' may be called oyster, abalone, or tree mushrooms, and are some of the most commonly cultivated edib ...

'' Pilát 1953 *''

Tulostoma kotlabae ''Tulostoma'' is a genus of fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Species in the genus are commonly known as stalkballs, or stalked puffballs. Fossils of ''Tulostoma'' have been reported from 12 million year old rocks in central England and 13.5 m ...

'' Pouzar 1958

References

External links

Author details at Index Fungorum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotlaba, Frantisek 1927 births 2020 deaths Czech mycologists Czech botanists People from Tábor District