Department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the Herbarium of Moscow University

Until 1917, botanists at Moscow University practically did not conduct research in the Asian part of Russia. However, during this period, MOIP organized large expeditions at its own expense to the Asian regions of the Russian Empire and the collections collected from these expeditions were long kept separately in MOIP funds. Later, these collections entered the Herbarium of Moscow University.

Only after 1918, when D.P. Syreishchikov took the leadership of the Herbarium, did he come to the decision to allocate the herbarium of Central Asia and Kazakhstan to a separate fund. The basis of the flora department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan was made up of the Kazakh and Central Asian collections of N. V. Pavlov and S. Yu. Lipshits (over 20 thousand sheets), as well as the relatively few pre-revolutionary collections of other authors ^[2] . N.V. Pavlov disassembled and included in the main fund of the Herbarium the most valuable materials of the first Russian researchers of the Dzungaria and Turkmenistan - G. S. Karelin and I. P. Kirilov ^[3] , and also “brought into order all other Central Asian collections” ^{[ 4]} . The Central Asian department received significant replenishment in the 1930s: in exchange for the herbarium of O. A. Fedchenko and B. A. Fedchenko , sent to the Central Asian (now Tashkent) University ; from there in 1930 and 1935. doublet materials were obtained, including exicates of Central Asia flora published by the SAGU herbarium. In those same years (1934, 1938), the Herbarium of Moscow University transferred the botanical fees of his expeditions (mainly from Kazakhstan and Central Asia) to the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Rubber and Gutta-percha; doublet materials were also received from the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the BIN RAS ). In subsequent years, the department was replenished both from materials collected by botanists of Moscow State University on various expeditions, and from revenues “from the outside”: from expeditions of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Medicinal Plants ( VILAR ), the Airborne Geological Trust, the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences , republican academies and private individuals.

Since the early 1970s department funds increased by about 14 thousand sheets. A great contribution to the replenishment of the collections of the department was made by M. G. Pimenov and his colleagues in the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University - E. V. Klyuykov , L. I. Sdobnina, Yu. V. Baranova, T. V. Lavrova and others; this is especially true of the Umbelliferae family, whose collection is now inferior in volume only to Compositae .

In the 1970s The funds of the department were significantly replenished (as well as the funds of the Caucasus Flora Department) due to the magnificent collections of I. S. Shchukin and A. V. Schukin from various regions of Central Asia dating back to the 1930s and 1960s.

As of February 1, 2005, the funds of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan Flora Department included 88,772 leaves (12.14% of the total volume of the Herbarium of Moscow University as a whole), representing 6809 taxa of species and subspecies ranks and 1135 genera.

The department is divided into 10 districts: 1-5 - mountainous regions, 6-10 - plain:

1. Kopetdag , Badkhyz , Small and Big Balkhan (mountainous regions of Turkmenistan );
2. Pamir and Pamir-Alai ( Tajikistan (except the far north of the Sogd region ); Batken and Osh (except the north-eastern part) regions of Kyrgyzstan ; Surkhandarya region , mountainous regions of Samarkand and Kashkadarya regions of Uzbekistan );
3. Western Tien Shan and Karatau ( Talas , Jalal-Abad (except for the eastern part) and Osh (northeastern) regions of Kyrgyzstan; mountain regions of Zhambyl and South Kazakhstan regions of Kazakhstan ; mountain regions of Tashkent and Namangan regions of Uzbekistan; extreme north of Sogd region Tajikistan);
4. Northern and Central Tien Shan (eastern part of the Jalal-Abad, Issyk-Kul , Naryn and Chui regions of Kyrgyzstan; mountainous regions of the Almaty region of Kazakhstan);
5. Dzhungarsky Alatau and Tarbagatai (mountainous part of the east of Almaty and the south of East Kazakhstan regions of Kazakhstan)
6. Karakum (Turkmenistan - except for mountainous areas);
7. Syrdarya deserts and Kyzylkum (Uzbekistan, except for mountainous regions; Kyzylorda region and the plain part of the South Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan);
8. Caspian Ustyurt and Northern Aral Sea (Kazakhstan: Mangistau , Atyrau , West Kazakhstan and Aktobe regions);
9. Muyunkum , Balkhash and Betpak-Dala (Kazakhstan: flat parts of Zhambyl, Almaty and East Kazakhstan regions; Karaganda and Kostanay regions south of 50 ° N);
10. Northern and Central Kazakhstan ( North Kazakhstan , Akmola , Pavlodar regions; Kostanai and Karaganda regions north of 50 ° N).