Hüsnü Demiriz (1920-1999) and his Turkish plant collection

Asuman Baytop

Prof. Dr. Hüsnü Demiriz (1920-1999) was a well known Turkish professor of systematic botany. Graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Higher Agricultural Instıtute at Ankara, he began his academic career in 1949 as assistant in the Dpt. of Pharmacobotany and Genetics of Istanbul University. He obtained his Dr. sc. Degree at the same university, became assistant professor, then professor. He went on teaching botany in Atatürk University, Erzurum (1968-1969), then in Dicle University, Diyarbakır (1974-1977), where he also acted as dean. Returned to Istanbul, he retired in 1988. He participated in many national and international congresses and organized international meetings in Turkey. His researches were in the fields of systematic botany, plant geography, Turkish flora and bibliography. He collected between 1943-1977 from 42 provinces of Turkey. In the 11 volumes of Flora of Turkey are cited 340 specimens of Demiriz. 11 of them are type specimens obtained between 1950-1988 from 9 provinces: İstanbul, Kocaeli, Bolu, Ağrı, Kars, İzmir, Muğla, Adana, İçel. 7 species names bear the epithet demirizii in their names, 3 of them are collected by Demiriz. His collection comprises not less than 10.000 specimens. They are kept in ISTF, ATA and DUF. He has also specimens in ANK, B, E, G, GENT, GOET, Z, Hb. Hub.-Mor. and Hb. Renz. He prepared the accounts of Telephium (1967), Dorycnium(1970) and Laurus (1982) for the volumes 2, 3 and 7 of the Flora. His outstanding work is An Annotated Bibliography of Turkish Flora and Vegetation, 1993, in which he enumerates 5000 publications with notes on their contents.

Key words: Turkish flora, botanical collections, collectors, Hüsnü Demiriz, history of botany.