Herbarium Alchemillarum in the Herbarium of Moscow University

"Herbarium Alchemillarum" by Professor V. N. Tikhomirov is one of the registered collections of the Herbarium of Moscow University ^[1] .

V.N. Tikhomirov (1932-1998) - systematist and florist, head of the department of morphology and systematics of higher plants at Moscow State University . Over the years of active work during expeditions, student practices and short trips, he collected extensive herbarium material of high quality, which replenished the main fund of many sectors of the Herbarium (mainly Central Russia). The genus Alchemilla L. ( Rosaceae ), one of the most difficult in the systematic plan of the genera of the flora of Russia, has been the object of constant attention of V.N. Tikhomirov since his student days. After practicing at the Chashnikovo agrobiological station in 1952, he collected the first cuff samples, which served as the beginning of his personal collection, which is now stored in the Herbarium of Moscow University.

In the 1950s - 1960s, V.N. Tikhomirov actively studied the cuffs of the Moscow Region. In 1956, in Chashnikov, he toured with S. V. Yuzepchuk , a taxonomist from the BIN of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Leningrad), author of the processing of the genus Alchemilla in “Flora of the USSR”. The results of his observations on the flora of the Moscow region VN Tikhomirov summarized in the "Key to plants of the Moscow region" ^[2] , in which 25 species are given for the flora of the region. Somewhat earlier, the genus was processed in the ninth edition of Flora by P. F. Mayevsky ^[3] , where 35 species were indicated for the territory of 27 regions and republics of Central Russia.

Since 1968, under the leadership of V. N. Tikhomirov and employees of the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University, they began to conduct field studies under the Flora Meshchera program. The results of 15-year trips to the Moscow, Vladimir and Ryazan regions were reflected in the “Meshchera Plant Identifier” (1986, 1987).

VN Tikhomirov’s treatments in the Flora of the North-East of the European Part of the USSR (1976) ^[4] (the Arkhangelsk Region and the Republic of Komi — 27 species) and in the Guide to Plants of Bashkiria (1989) ^{[5] ]} (38 species). V.N. Tikhomirov described 6 new types of cuffs.

The final work, which summarized the nearly 45-year-old work of Professor V. N. Tikhomirov in studying the systematics and geography of cuffs in European Russia, was the treatment of the genus in the Flora of Eastern Europe (2001) ^[6] , which lists 133 species. The review of this work ^[7] says: "The fundamental processing of the genus ... for many years will be the leading source for the knowledge of cuffs." Later, the Herbarium Alchemillarum collection became the basis for creating distribution maps for representatives of the genus in European Russia, made for the XIV volume of the Atlas of the Flora of Europe.

In 1962, V. N. Tikhomirov introduced a continuous numbering of all materials at his disposal in Herbarium Alchemillarum. Thanks to this, it is now possible to establish how the collection grew. At the beginning of 1963, he attached to his collection a sample under No. 96, in 1964 - No. 371, in 1968 - No. 433, in 1970 - No. 467, in 1972 - No. 614, in 1975 - No. 870, in 1976 - No. 916, in 1977 - No. 1062, in 1978 - No. 1169, in 1979 - No. 1246, in 1980 - No. 1407, in 1981 - No. 1522, in 1982 - No. 1617, in 1985 - No. 1755, in 1986 - No. 1805, in 1987 - No. 1890, in 1988 - No. 1960, in 1989 - No. 2152, in 1990 - No. 2122, in 1992 - No. 2264, in 1992 - No. 2264, in 1994 - No. 3019, in 1995 - No. 3126, in 1996 - No. 3546, in 1997 - No. 3668.

The material in the collection is arranged alphabetically by species name, within species - by district according to the original regionalization scheme:

Moscow:

• wild
• cultivated in the botanical garden of Moscow State University

Moscow region ^[2] :

• surroundings of the village of Chashnikovo
• Klinsko-Dmitrovsky district
• Northern region
• West area
• East area
• Southern District
• Southeast District
• Prioksky District
• Zaoksky district

Central Russia:

• Bryansk region
• Vladimir region
• Gorky Region
• Ivanovo region
• Kalinin region
• Kaluga region
• Kostroma region
• Kuibyshev region
• Kursk region
• Lipetsk region
• Mari ASSR
• Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
• Oryol Region
• Penza region
• Ryazan Oblast
• Saratov region
• Smolensk region
• Tambov Region
• Tatar ASSR
• Tula region
• Ulyanovsk region
• Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
• Yaroslavskaya oblast

Karelian-Murmansk region

Northern region

Northeast District

East area

Ural

Northwest District

The Baltic states

Belarus

Ukraine

Crimea

Caucasus

Siberia

Altai

The “Herbarium Alchemillarum" stores 3,733 samples belonging to 119 species. Many species are represented in the Herbarium of Moscow University only in this collection. The most representative fees are available from the Moscow and Vladimir regions and the Republic of Mordovia. In total, several hundred people transferred their fees to V.N. Tikhomirov.

“Herbarium Alchemillarum” was kept at the Department of Morphology and Systematics of Higher Plants until 2000, when after the death of V.N. Tikhomirov, at the insistence of curator I. A. Gubanov, this collection was transferred to the Herbarium. Professor V.N. Tikhomirov did not check the definition of cuffs in the geographical sections of the Herbarium, relying solely on his own collection. However, it is excellent in all respects, and almost twice as much as other material from Eastern Europe. Based on this, it was decided to keep this collection separately as one of the registered collections. According to the practice in Herbarium, a complete catalog of this collection has been prepared.