Flora of Western Siberia

The Department of Western Siberia (about 65 thousand herbarium sheets) was a first Herbarium department. It was initially established as the Herbarium of the Altai and Tomsk Province in 1885, after 1918 it was renamed as the Department of Western Siberia. It presents vascular plants from the entire territory of Western Siberia and partly from adjacent regions of the Urals and North Kazakhstan. The core of the collection is formed of year’s long collections of P.N. Krylov from the Urals, Altai, Kuznetsk Alatau, Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan and almost the entire territory of the West Siberian Plain. It also comprises collections of V.V. Sapozhnikov from the Altai, the Ob Arctic, the Tomsk Oblast, of B.K. Shishkin from the Altai, of V.V. Reverdatto and L.F. Reverdattofrom the Altai, Kuznetsk Alatau and the steppes of Western Siberia, of L.P. Sergiyevskaya from Tomsk Oblast and other parts of Western Siberia and Kazakhstan, of G.P. Sumnevich from Altai and Narym range, of L.B. Kolokolnikova from Kuznetsk Alatau and others. Collections of geobotanists of Tomsk school L.V. Shumilova, A.V. Cumic and others are also stored there. After the establishment of the Research Institute of Biology and Biophysics (NII BB at TSU) at Tomsk State University in 1968, the Department enlarged considerably due to expeditions to study the plant resources of the Altai led by head of the laboratory Y.P. Surova under the laboratory of flora and vegetation resources. Large collection from the territory of the Tomsk Oblast was collected by N.F. Vyltsan and E.P. Prokopyev. Since the late seventies of the twentieth century, the collection was supplemented with major materials gathered during the expeditions of A.S. Revushkin to the Altai.

The Department of the Yenisei Siberia (about 42 thousand herbarium sheets). The collection started to build up at the beginning of the twentieth century from materials of P.N. Krylov (1892) from Mirskiy and Aradanskiy ridges, but was not properly documented. During the period of the Resettlement Administration (1912-1914) and later in the Soviet period, the collection of this department has increased repeatedly. It comprises specimens from the vast territory of the Taimyr Peninsula to Sayan highlands, mainly within the administrative boundaries of the Krasnoyarsk krai and the former autonomous territory, and now – the Republic of Khakassia. The basis of the collection consists of materials from numerous expeditions of V.V. Reverdatto, who began the study of the territory as a student at the Tomsk Institute of Technology, and upon becoming a professor at the Tomsk University made 12 expeditions to Krasnoyarsk. His disciples continued collecting materials in this territory – V.P. Golubintseva, Z.I. Tarchevskaya and V.V. Tarchevskiy, V.D. Nashchokin, A.V. Polozhiy and others. M.V. Kuminov and A.V. Kuminova, S.I. Gluzdakov, S.V. Gudoshnikov made wonderful collections from Sayans. A.V. Shumilova, L.I. Obolentsev, A.V. Polozhiy, N.A. Olonov brought significant collections from remote areas of the Evenki National District. Numerous materials have been collected in recent years in the West Sayan, Kuznetsk Alatau and steppe regions of Khakassia by the staff of the P.N. Krylov Herbarium within research and grants. Undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Department of Botany of TSU took part in collecting materials for this department of the Herbarium.