Contribution of Otto Schwarz (1900-1983) to the flora of Anatolia

Asuman Baytop

Prof. Dr. rer.nat., Dr.h.c. Otto Anton Karl Schwarz (1900-1983) is a well known German botanist. He has been the director of the Institute of Systematic Botany in Jena University, the director of the Botanical Garden and the rector of the University. In his youth, he was active as a botanist in the Plant Protection Institute at Bornova (Izmir, Turkey) from 1931 to 1934 and collected intensively, mainly from the provinces of Izmir, Manisa, Aydın and Muğla. He returned to Turkey in Summer 1938 and explored this time the mountains in the provinces of Muğla and Antalya, and visited Murat dağı (Uşak). He has also collected specimens from the provinces of Eskişehir, Ankara and Adana; as they are undated, we don't know when he has been in this regions. Schwarz has collected from Anatolia the type specimens of 26 new taxa. The great part is named and described by himself. They are collected from the provinces of Izmir, Manisa, Muğla, and Antalya. His Turkish specimens are collected in 1931-1934 and 1938, housed in 3 herbaria in Europe (B, JE, K) and 3 herbaria in Turkey (ANK, EGE, Hb. Plant Protection Institute at Bornova). He published at least 27 articles dealing with Turkish plants.

Keywords: Turkish flora, botanical collections, collectors, Otto Schwarz, history of botany. Anahtar kelimeler: Türkiye florası, bitki toplamaları, toplayıcılar, Otto Schwarz, botanik tarihi.