Boris Fedtschenko

Boris Alexjewitsch (Alexeevich) Fedtschenko
Black and white photo of botanist Boris Alexjewitsch Fedtschenko
Born	(1872-12-27)27 December 1872 (8 January 1873 in Russian calendar) Leipzig
Died	29 September 1947(1947-09-29) (aged 74) Leningrad
Nationality	English
Occupation	Plant pathologist, botanist

Boris Alexjewitsch (Alexeevich) Fedtschenko was a Russian plant pathologist and botanist. He is primarily known for his work on various regions of Russia, especially the Caucasus, Siberia and Asiatic Russia. He was also head botanist at the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden.

Boris Fedtschenko was the son of botanists Olga Fedtschenko and Aleksei Fedtschenko. He was born in Leipzig, while his parents were on an expedition in Western Europe. In 1873, eight months after he was born, Alexei was killed in a climbing accident on Mont Blanc.

Olga studied natural sciences at the University of Moscow.

Between 1891-1892, she undertook the first of many trips with her son, going first to the Ural Mountains. In the summer of 1893, they explored the Crimea twice, 17 to 28 June, then July 29 to August 1. They made a large circular botanical voyage around the Crimean Mountains and collected in the Sevastopol area. In 1894, they explored Transcaucasia. In 1897, they studied the flora of the western Tian Mountains.

Between 1898-1899, Fedtschenko became a botanist at the Imperial Botanic Garden in St Petersburg.

In 1901, Olga and Boris went on a botanical expedition in the Pamir Mountain range. Later they published Materiaux pour la flore du Caucase (1901), Flora of the Pamirs (1901) and Conspectus Florae Turkestanicae (1913), which covered 4145 species.

Between 1899 and 1904, their large collections (including 700+ specimens from SW Crimea) were carefully studied and completely reflected in a series of papers. The plant collection was later given to the Botanic Garden, and is now one of its most notable collections.

By 1902, he was the head of the botanic garden's herbarium. This also meant he was responsible for editing the garden's periodical (Bulletin of the Imperial Institute), which was started in 1919. It conducted fieldwork in Central Asia during the 1920s, which added species information to the Flora SSSR project.