Edmund Russow

Edmund Russow
Born	24 February 1841 Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia
Died	11 April 1897
Citizenship	Russian
Nationality	Baltic German
Institutions	University of Tartu

Edmund August Friedrich Russow (24 February 1841 – 11 April 1897) was a Baltic German biologist born in Tallinn (German: Reval), in present-day Estonia.

Academic career

Son of a military engineer, Edmund Russow studied at the Universities of Tartu (German: Dorpat) and Berlin. In 1867 he became an associate professor at Dorpat, where from 1874 to 1897, he served as a full professor. In 1895-97 he was president of the Estonian Naturalists' Society. Russow was at the forefront of nature conservation in Estonia, and associated with the work of Hugo Conwentz (1865-1922), a founder of nature conservation efforts throughout Europe.

Botanical work

Russow was an authority on Sphagnaceae (sphagnum mosses)^[1] and remembered for his research in plant anatomy and histology, in particular studies of the plant family Marsileaceae (aquatic and semi-aquatic ferns).^[2] The plant genus Russowia is named in his honor,^[3] as is Sphagnum russowii (Russow's sphagnum).

Written works

• Histologie und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Sporenfrucht von Marsilia. Dissertation. Dorpat (1871)
  • « Entwickelungsgeschichte der Sporenfrucht von Marsilia » (1873). In: Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg, série VII, tome XIX, p. 42
• Vergleichende Untersuchungen betreffend die Histiologie … der leitbundel Kryptogamen. In: Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, 1872
• Betrachtungen über das leitbundel- und grundgewebe aus vergleichend morphologischem und phylogenetischem geschichtspunkt (1875).^[4]

References

• "Biographical information based on an equivalent article at the Estonian Wikipedia".