TAXA NAMED AFTER PANCIC

During his 42 years’ research work on the plant life of the Balkan Peninsula, Josif Pancic established close and friendly relationships with the most distinguished European botanists of his time. A great part of his herbarium collection Pancic has sent to the most significant European herbaria. In this way many type plants - described by himself or subsequently by some other researches on the basis of his material - may be found preserved in many European botanical centers. Among them  there are some Pancic’s types which  are missing in the Herbarium of the Institute of Botany and Botanical  Garden Jevremovac” of Belgrade University (BEOU).

A large number of taxa new to science, ranked as species, subspecies, varieties and forms, has been named after Pancic, which is a special honour and recognition for one botanist. More than 20 top European botanists, named after Pancic 32 taxa of varying systematic values (1 genus, 19 species, 1 subspecies, 9 varieties and 2 hybrids). However, through additional revisions and new combinations another 11 taxa were named after Pancic, so that currently there are 43 plants in all by the name of Pancic/. Most of these taxa are described on the basis of Pancic’s material, which he had sent  to his friends and colleagues in European botanical centers. Some of the most distinguished botanists, who dedicated their species to Pancic are: Karel VANDAS, Josef VELENOVSKY, Josef ROHLENA, Arpad DEGEN, Janos HEUFFEL, Zoltan SZABO, Karlo MALY, Victor JANKA, August von HAYEK, Ginther BECK, Eduard HACKEL, Roberto VISIANI, Antonio BALDACCI, Isaq BRIQUET, Lujo ADAMOVIC and others.

It should be noted that Josif Pancic belongs to the group of rare,  to put it  freely, most significant world botanists whose botanical achievements are perpetuated in the name of one plant genus. Thus, his colleague and friend, a renowned Italian botanist, Roberto Visiani, named after Pancic the entire plant genus- Pancicia Visiani 1857 (fam. Apiaceae).

The Section “Taxa named after Pancic” presented here is based on the work:

Diklic, Nikola: Pancic’s work in the field of phytotaxonomy – discovery of plant species new to science – In: Josif Pancic, Life and Work – Josif Pancic collected works book 11, ed. Tatic, B., Curcic, B., Jankovic, M., Publishing House for Textbooks and Teaching Aids, Belgrade, 1988, p.243-258.