Saint Petersburg University

Name

Saint Petersburg University

Herbarium Code

LECB

Current Status

Active

Correspondents

Valentina Bubyreva, Head, Botany Department, bubyreva@mail.ru

Contact

Email: bubyreva@mail.ru

Address

Herbarium
Botany Department
Faculty of Biology
Saint Petersburg University
Universitetskaya Emb. 7/9
Saint Petersburg 199034
Russia
http://bio.spbu.ru/faculty/collections/herbarium.php

Specialty

Taxonomic Coverage: All groups

Geography: Worldwide, mainly eastern Europe

Notes

Updated Oct 2017. Herbarium of the Botany Department of the Saint Petersburg State University (LECB) is one of the largest University Herbarium of Russia. Its funds contain at least 800,000 herbarium sheets of higher plants. Now Herbarium collection is unique in the structure of the University, both in historical and in scientific terms by geographical coverage and systematic collection of funds, the existing type specimens (more than 3,500 types in the present, as we found). The type collection includes quite a significant amount of rare and original authentic specimens collected by various botanists such as E. Boissier (1810–1885), V. Borbas (1844–1905), H. Cuming (1791–1865), A.P. Decandolle (1778–1841), J. Forster (1754–1794), W. Hooker (1785–1865), G. Schimper (1804–1878), V. Tineo (1791–1856), W. Besser (1784–1842), А. Bunge (1803–1890), R. Hohenacker (1798–1872), G. Karelin (1801–1872), I. Kirilov(1822–1842), St. Krasheninnikov (1711–1755), C. Ledebour (1785–1851), R. Maack (1825–1886), K. Meinshausen (1819–1899), C. Meyer (1795–1855), А. Nordmann (1803–1866), P. Pallas (1741–1811), Ch. Steven (1781–1863), N. Turzaninov (1793–1863), А. Shrenk (1816–1876) etc. This Herbarium is probably one of the oldest as Russia storage facilities. The oldest herbarium specimens kept in LECB, belong to the middle of XVII century, or even the end of XVI century. Prelinnean specimens found by us in G. Bongard (1786–1839) and E. Lindemann (1825–1901) collections. Thus, according to Lindemann, in his collection during his lifetime were kept for more than 60 specimens collected by prelinnean F. Ambrosi (2 sheets), J. Breyn (1637–1697) (36), C. Bauhin (1) (1560–1624), A. Clegero (1) (he collected Juniperus japonica from Japan in 1688), J. Gerard (1545–1612) (1), J. Gmelin (1709–1755) (20). Many specimens found in Bongard’s herbarium, but how many relics it contains is difficult to say, since Bongard did not kept accounting herbarium revenues. Currently LECB, revealed more than 60 prelinnean specimens. The most of them were found in herbaria Bongard – specimens belonged to J. Commelin (1629–1692), C. Commelin (1668–1731), Breyn, P. Hermann (1646–1695), G. Steller (1709–1746), Gmelin etc., as well as in the herbarium Lindemann to Bauhin, Clegero, Breyn, Gmelin, etc. Currently, the oldest specimen found in LECB, is a specimen of C. Bauhin (1560–1624) – Jucca gloriosa L., without an exact date on the label, but, undoubtedly, belonged to Bauhin. Some of the old specimens have only historical interest, other are syntypes for species of C. Linnaeus (1707–1778), P. Pallas (1741–1811), J. Lamarck (1744–1829) and others, which is why value these specimens is particularly large. Examples of these types: Melanthium sibiricum L., Anthericum calyculatum L., Convolvolus ammannii Desr., Convolvulus lineatus L., Yucca gloriosa L., Andromeda stelleriana Pall., Claytonia arctica Adam, Claytonia sibirica L., Alyssum hyperboreum L., Phlox sibirica L. Thus, LECB is the third in Russia after Moscow State University Herbarium (MW) and Komarov Botanical Institute RAS (LE), which revealed prelinnean specimens, and some of which refers to syntypes of Linnean taxa. Private herbaria of H. G. Bongard (25 000 specimens) and E. E. Lindemann (200 000 specimens) housed at LECB. Two contributors to Bongard’s collection deserve special mention: Johann Jacob Boeber (1746-1820) and Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765-1812). It was Boeber’s personal herbarium the first collection to have been acquired in 1823 by the Department of Botany and added to Bongard’s own collection, comprising at the time 6,783 species. According to Bongard, Boeber’s collection of 7,000 specimens, representing 6,000 vascular plants and 1,000 cryptogams, was for the most part “badly pressed, or damaged by use”. Subsequently, and for reasons unknown, most of its specimens had been transferred to the Botanical Museum and are presently kept at the Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LE). That Bongard’s collection at LECB includes some of Willdenow’s original specimens is not a widely known fact, either in Russia, or in the West. Our research indicates that there are 1,089 Willdenow’s specimens at LECB, with 104 of them authenticated by labels in his hand. This alone makes Bongard’s collection at LECB quite unique, both as a historic and scientific record. The only other Willdenow herbarium sheets in Russia, with labels in his hand, are found at LE (limited to algae), and at MW, the Moscow University Herbarium (about 50 sheets). Our preliminary study of Bongard’s collection at LECB identified around 1,450 type specimens (mostly syntypes and isotypes) that are currently kept in the Herbarium’s type collection of about 3,500 specimens. Among them, 42 type specimens of the Restionaceae, with 33 of them described by K.S. Kunth (1788-1850). Kunth, along with several other taxonomists, studied specimens collected by J.F. Drége (1794-1881) at the Cape of Good Hope and in other districts of the Cape Province in South Africa. There are also Bongard’s own type specimens, such as Соrallorhiza mertensiana Bong., collected by K.H. Mertens at Sitka, Alaska, with labels both in Bongard’s and Mertens’s hand. However, most of the types described by Bongard are kept at LE. The LECB specimens seem to be duplicates of those, with more detailed labels, found at LE. Literature about Herbarium (LECB) http://www.rasl.ru/e_resours/Gerbary_bin/uchrezhdeniya/spbgu.html

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