Josias Braun-Blanquet

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Josias Braun-Blanquet (née Braun ; born August 3, 1884 in Chur ; † September 20, 1980 in Montpellier ) was a Swiss botanist who developed plant sociology into a separate field of research in vegetation science . Its botanical author's abbreviation is “ Braun-Blanq. ", In the plant sociology also the abbreviation" Br.-Bl. " in use.

Live and act

Josias Braun learned the trade and devoted himself to the local flora in his free time. Early on he had contact with botanists such as Carl Schroeter , Heinrich Brockmann-Jerosch and Eduard Rübel , who employed him as an assistant for a year from 1905. Without a high school diploma, he was able to study at the University of Zurich with the support of Hans Schinz , but could not graduate.

For this reason he moved to Montpellier , where in 1915 he did a thesis on the flora of the southern Cevennes with Charles Flahault as Dr. sc. nat. received his doctorate. In 1923 he qualified as a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich for botany . From 1926 he lived in seclusion as a private scholar in Montpellier. In 1915 he married his fellow student Gabrielle Blanquet. Since then he has had the double name.

With his research, Braun-Blanquet had a lasting influence on the development of vegetation science in Central Europe. In his teaching and method building, he summarized existing approaches for arranging and classifying plant stocks. The main idea was the "principle of a systematic system of plant communities on a floristic basis" with the key terms character type , differential type and vegetation uptake .

Braun-Blanquet's book “ Plant Sociology. Grundzüge der Vegetationskunde "(1928, 3rd edition 1964) is considered the standard work of modern plant sociology . The method of vegetation mapping developed by him is still used with great success for researching the plant communities of grassland. Braun-Blanquet founded the Station Internationale de Géobotanique Mediterranéenne et Alpine ("SIGMA"). In 1974 he was awarded the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London .

Important students of Braun-Blanquet included Erwin Aichinger , Heinz Ellenberg , Erich Oberdorfer , Reinhold Tüxen and Maks Wraber , who applied his methods in different regions of Europe, developed them and passed them on to their own students.

Memberships and honors

Honorary member of the following societies:

  • East Alpine-Dinaric Society for Vegetation Science
  • Società Italiana di Phytosociologia
  • Sociedad Española de Ciencia del Suelo
  • German Botanical Society
  • Societas Linnaeana Londinensis
  • Sociedad Argentina de Botánica
  • Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona
  • Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali Florence
  • Scientific Association for Carinthia

Member of the following companies:

  • Institució Catalana d'Història Natural Barcelona
  • Academie Polonaise des Sciences Warsaw
  • Regia Academia Scientiarum Suecica

Further honors:

  • 1971: Bündner Kulturpreis of the Canton of Graubünden
  • 1974: Linnean Gold Medal
  • 1974: Name of the genus Braunblanquetia from the family Scrophulariaceae after Braun-Blanquet by Ulrich Georg Eskuche .
  • In 1977 the publishing house Dr. W. Junk Publishers donated the Braun Blanquet Prize in his honor . The prize is awarded to a vegetation expert every two years.
  • Some plants also bear his name in their scientific names, for example the perennial snapdragon Antirrhinum brown blanquetii .
  • Braun-Blanquet was made an honorary citizen of the city of Chur.

Major works

  • The vegetation conditions of the snow level in the Rhaetian-Lepontian Alps. A picture of plant life at its extreme limits . Switzerland. Natural science. Zurich Society 1913.
  • Plant sociology. Basics of vegetation science . Springer-Verlag Berlin 1928 = Biological Study Books Vol. 7; 2. reworked. u. probably edition. Springer-Verlag Wien u. New York 1951; 3. rework. and essentially probably the edition ibid. 1964.
  • Flora of Graubünden. Occurrence, distribution and ecological-sociological. Behavior of the wild growing vascular plants of Graubünden and its border areas (together with Eduard Rübel). 4 partial deliveries, Verlag Huber, Bern 1932–1935 = publications by the Geobotanical Institute Rübel Zurich, vol. 7.
  • The inner alpine dry vegetation. From Provence to Styria . Verlag Gustav Fischer Stuttgart 1961 = Geobotanica selecta vol. 1.
  • La Végétation alpine des Pyrénées Orientales, étude de phyto-sociologie comparée (Monografías de la Estación de Estudios Pirenaicos y del Instituto Español de Edafología, Ecología y Fisiología Vegetal, 9 (Bot. 1). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Barcelona, ​​1948)
  • Las comunidades vegetales de la depresión del Ebro y su dinamismo , con Oriol de Bolòs (Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1987).

literature

  • Erwin Aichinger : Plant sociology and its evaluation in the forestry of the Eastern Alps. In: Carinthia II. 163./83. Year, Klagenfurt 1973, pp. 43–80 ( PDF (3.2 MB) on ZOBODAT , full text with honors Braun-Blanquets).
  • Wolfgang Haber: Josias Braun-Blanquet 1884-1980. In: Reports of the Bavarian Botanical Society for the study of flora. 51, 1980, pp. 146-148 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Gustav Wendelberger: Josias Braun-Blanquet +. In: Negotiations of the Zoological-Botanical Society in Vienna. Formerly: Relationship of the Zoological-Botanical Association in Vienna. Acta ZooBot Austria since 2014 . 120, 1981, pp. 113-115 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Ruben Sutter: Dr. Josias Braun-Blanquet - an appreciation of life and work. In: Botanica Helvetica. Volume 91, 1981, pp. 17-33 (with picture and list of publications).
  • Wolfgang Haber: Josias Braun-Blanquet (1884-1980). In: Tüxenia. NS 1, 1981, pp. 3-6 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Wolfgang Haber: Commemorative words for Dr. Josias Braun-Blanquet on the occasion of the funeral service in the crematorium in Chur on October 26, 1980. In: Carinthia II. 171/91. Year, Klagenfurt 1981, pp. 491–492 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Erika and Sandro Pignatti: Josias Braun-Blanquet †. Braun-Blanquet's teaching yesterday and today and its significance for the future. In: Phytocoenologia. Volume 9, 1981, pp. 417-442 (with picture and list of publications).
  • Heinz Ellenberg: J. Braun-Blanquet and R. Tüxen - 50 years of plant sociology. In: Reports of the German Botanical Society. Volume 95, 1982, pp. 387-391 (with picture).
  • Martin Camenisch et al .: J. Braun-Blanquet. Chur 1884 - Montpellier 1980. World famous botanist. Publisher: Foundation for the Bündner Naturmuseum Collection. 2005.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ E. Aichinger 1973: 44
  2. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Braun-Blanquet, Josias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Josias Braun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss botanist
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Chur
DATE OF DEATH 20th September 1980
Place of death Montpellier