Vladimir Ippolitovich Lipsky or Volodymyr Ipolytovych Lypsky (Russian: Владимир Ипполитович Липский; Ukrainian: Володимир Іполитович Липський; 11 March 1863 – 24 February 1937) was a Ukrainian scientist, botanist; a member of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (in 1922–1928, its president) and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and the director of the Botanical Gardens of the Odessa University.
Birth and education Vladimir was born on 11 March 1863 in the village of Samostrely (now Korets Raion of Rivne Oblast). His father, grandfather and great grandfather were clergymen. The Lipsky family moved to Zhitomir in 1873. Vladimir studied at the Volhynian Gymnasium; he graduated from Pavlo Galagan Collegium (magna cum laude) in 1881, and Kyiv University in 1887. The formation of Vladimir Lipsky as a scientist was considerably influenced by Johannes Schmalhausen, who headed the chair of plant taxonomy and morphology.
Career From 1887 to 1894 Vladimir Lipsky worked with the Botanical Garden of Kyiv University first as conservator, then as assistant at the chair of botanics. He took part in scientific expeditions to the Caucasus and Northern Iran from 1889. Between 1894 and 1917, Lipsky worked with the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden as junior and senior conservator of the herbarium, chief botanist, and eventually head of the Living Plants Department. Lipsky participated in scientific expeditions to the Caucasus, Altai and Central Asia conducting detailed studies of the Alpine flora of the regions. In 1917 he returned to Ukraine and actively participated in the creation of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, holding the botany chair of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was the president of the academy from 1922 to 1928. Between 1928 and 1933 he was the director of the Botanical Gardens of the Odessa University in Odessa. Lipsky conducted extensive botanical expeditions and travelled to nearly all continents except Australia and Antarctica.
Research Vladimir did research in the fields of floristics, plant taxonomy and phytogeography of plants, herbarium work, principles of organization of botanical gardens, history of botany. He became one of the first botanists to provide scientific descriptions of the flora of Indonesia, Tunisia, Algeria, and Central Asia. In particular, Vladimir Lipsky described 4 new genera, and 220 new species of plant, 45 of which are named after him. He also authored 82 printed works.
First Kyiv period Upon graduation from the university, Vladimir participated in numerous scientific expeditions: Podolia, Bessarabia, Crimea, Caucasus and Central Asia. Lipsky's first academic work appeared in 1889: Research in Flora of Bessarabia (Russian: Исследование о флоре Бессарабии, Issledovaniye o flore Bessarabii), where, inter alia, a new species of plants was described: Valerianella bessarabica. Vladimir published a number of his reports on his expeditions at the Proceedings of Kyiv Society of Nature Researchers («Записки Київського товариства дослідників природи», Zapiski Kyivskogo Tovaristva Doslidnykiv Prirody). Starting from 1889, Vladimir visited the Caucasus several times to research the plants of the region. The journeys resulted in the description of about 40 new species and subvarieties of plants. In order to identify distinctive character of Caucasian flora and to do comparative studies, he also visited Northern Iran. Lipsky published the results of the Caucasian flora studies in his treatise Flora of Caucasus. A Corpus of Information about Caucasian Flora for Bicentennial Period of its Research, starting from Tournefort and ending by the 19th Century («Флора Кавказа. Свод сведений о флоре Кавказа за двухсотлетний период её исследования, начиная от Турнефора и кончая XIX веком»). In particular, the book lists 4,500 species of plants and provides accurate data of their distribution. The botanist described three new genera of flowering plants: Beketowia, Orthorhiza and Schumannia. The following plants can be noted among new Caucasian plants described by Vladimir Lipsky: Dioscorea caucasica, Fagus orientalis, Levisticum caucasicum, Potentilla alexeenkoi, Tulipa caucasica, Hypericum ponticum, and many others.
St. Petersburg period
Starting from 1894 Lipsky worked at the botanical garden of St. Petersburg. From 1894 through 1896 he continued his studies of Caucasian plants commenced while in Kyiv. After 1896 he started researching alpine plants of Central Asia highlands. The botanist explored southern slopes of Gissar Range, Pamiro-Alai, Tian Shan, Dzungarian Alatau, Kopet Dag, Fergana Valley and Zeravshan Valley, becoming the first botanist visiting many of the areas. The expeditions resulted in more than thirty works and treatises, including:
Materials for Flora of Central Asia («Материалы для флоры Средней Азии»); Flora of Central Asia, i.e. Russian Turkestan and Bukhara and Khiva Khanates («Флора Средней Азии, то есть Русского Туркестана и ханств Бухары и Хивы»); Mountainous Bukhara («Горная Бухара»). In those treatises Lipsky revised botanical knowledge of the above areas, rectified errors of predecessors, and described about a hundred new species and four new genera: Korshinskia, Galagania, Koslovia, Ladyginia. The botanist paid much attention to the history of the Petersburg Botanical Garden and its herbaria and collections. He published the results of his research in the following works:
Herbarium of the Saint-Petersburg Botanical Garden by the End of 75th year of its Existence, 1823–1898 («Гербарий С.-Петербургского ботанического сада к концу его 75-летнего существования, 1823–1898»), Historical Overview of Saint-Petersburg Botanical Garden, 1713–1913 («Исторический очерк С.-Петербургского ботанического сада, 1713–1913»), Biographies and Literary Activities of Botanists and Persons Associated with the Botanical Garden («Биографии и литературная деятельность ботаников и лиц, соприкасавшихся с ботаническим садом»).
Between 1900 and 1902 Vladimir Lipsky visited various countries studying herbaria and botanical gardens. In total, he succeeded in visiting all continents of the Earth, save for Australia and Antarctica.
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