Elias Landolt (geobotanist)

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Elias Landolt (born July 24, 1926 in Zurich ; † April 1, 2013 there ; authorized to live there ) was a Swiss geobotanist . His most important publications were a part of the native flora of Switzerland and on the other hand, the duckweed plants dedicated. The official botanical author abbreviation is " Landolt ".

Life and career

Landolt grew up as the eldest son of the lawyer, politician and later Mayor of Zurich Emil Landolt - and great-grandson of the forest scientist Elias Landolt - in the Enge district of Zurich . From 1945 to 1949 he studied natural sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and received his doctorate in 1953 under Professors Ernst Gäumann and Walo Koch with a dissertation on the species group of the mountain buttercup (Ranunculus montanus). From 1953 to 1955 he did a research stay in California , first at the Carnegie Institution for Science , Department of Plant Biology, in Stanford and then at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Returning to Zurich, Landolt became an assistant at the ETHZ in 1955, where he taught and researched until his retirement. His habilitation thesis he wrote about Physiological and ecological studies on Lemnaceae ( duckweed ). From 1957 to 1964 he worked as a private lecturer in the field of special botany, in particular the systematics of flowering plants .

In 1964 Landolt was appointed associate professor for special botany, especially phanerogamology . 1966/67 he worked as an associate professor and from 1967 to 1992 as a full professor of geobotany (farewell lecture in February 1993). In addition, from 1966 to 1993 he was director of the Geobotanical Institute, Rübel Foundation (today part of the Institute for Integrative Biology in the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETHZ). Even after his retirement in 1992, Landolt remained actively involved in research.

Create and work

Landolt is best known in Switzerland for his research and publications on Swiss and Alpine flora , and later also for his extensive mappings for the city of Zurich and the Sihlwald south of it . This work has u. a. contributed to awakening a new understanding of nature in the municipal horticultural offices.

However, he has made many research trips to tropical and subtropical countries in order duckweed to collect. The result is a unique collection of live duckweed and herbarium specimens, from which many researchers have obtained the objects for their work. The original collection is still in Zurich. A copy of the collection is maintained in the United States at Rutgers State University of New Jersey ; a small part of the collection is also available at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena .

In addition to his research work, Landolt was involved in numerous botany and nature conservation associations and commissions, such as Pro Natura (formerly the Federation for Nature Conservation), the Zurich and Swiss Botanical Society, the Natural Research Society in Zurich , the Swiss Greina Foundation for the preservation of the Alpine rivers, the Sihlwald Nature Landscape Foundation and the Sitatunga Foundation for Nature Conservation.

Honors

A genus of Lemna was in honor of Elias Landolt Landoltia Les & DJCrawford named.

A winter linden tree that stands on the J.-R.-von-Salis grounds near the Hirschengraben in Zurich was planted by Pro Natura in memory of its long-term honorary president.

Publications (selection)

Landolt knew how to write publications that were intended for the inner circle of science as well as those that were aimed at an interested lay public.

Flores of Switzerland and the Alps

  • The species groups of Ranunculus montanus Willd. in the Alps and in the Jura. Cytological systematic examinations. Dissertation ETH, Bern 1954. Printed in: Report of the Swiss Botanical Society, Volume 64, pp. 9–84.
  • Our alpine flora. 1st edition, SAC-Verlag, Bern 1960, 8th edition ibid 2012.
  • With H. Hess and R. Hirzel: Flora of Switzerland. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel / Boston / Berlin 1967. (Three volumes.)
  • Flora of the city of Zurich. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel / Boston / Berlin 2001.
  • Flora indicativa. Ecological indicator values ​​and biological characteristics for the flora of Switzerland and the Alps. Haupt Verlag, Bern 2010.
  • Flora of the Sihl valley from the city of Zurich to the Höhronen (PDF; 6.7 MB) and maps of the flora of the Sihl valley (PDF; 3.7 MB), ed. from the specialist agency for nature conservation in the Canton of Zurich. 2013.

Duckweed

  • Physiological and ecological studies on Lemnaceae. Habilitation thesis ETH, 1957. Printed in: Reports of the Swiss Botanical Society, Volume 67, pp. 271–410.
  • The Family of Lemnaceae - a monographic study. Volume 1. Zurich 1986 (= publications by the Geobotanical Institute of the ETH, Rübel Foundation in Zurich, volume 71).
  • With R. Kandeler: The Family of Lemnaceae - a monographic study. Volume 2. Zurich 1987 (= publications of the Geobotanical Institute of the ETH, Rübel Foundation in Zurich, issue 95).

additional

  • The development of botany at the ETH in Zurich. In: Botanica Helvetica, 100/3, 1990, pp. 353-374. e-lib.ch
  • The sense and nonsense of botanical nomenclature. In: Botanica Helvetica, 101/1, 1991, pp. 1-7. e-lib.ch
  • Elias Landolt 1821-1896. A life for the forest. Beer, Zurich 2002 (= New Year's Gazette for the year 2002, published by the learned society in Zurich).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Landolt, Elias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss geobotanist
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 2013
Place of death Zurich