New discoveries of Russian-German botanic expedition
At the beginning of August 2016 another Russian-German joint expedition took place. It was organized by ASU South-Siberian Botanic Garden and supervised by Professor A.I. Shmakov. This time botanists’ attention was attracted by flora of Eastern Kazakhstan as a part of Altai Mountains. All materials, which had been gathered in the course of field work, were added to university’s herbarium and botanic garden’s collection of rare and endangered plant species. Besides, the scientists also collected the samples for different genetic analyses of ASU Bioengineering Laboratory that had been organized in cooperation with SB RAS Institute for Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine (Novosibirsk).
“In the course of expedition we managed to gather a lot of rare species. It will allow us to complement the data we have in the framework of botanical garden’s project “Altai Flora”. We found the plants that had not been gathered by botanists for more than 150 years. We have also herborized some samples of Saussurea, which is currently present in world’s major collections only,” Candidate of Biology, head of the Department of Taxonomy of South-Siberian Botanic Garden Sergey V. Smirnov commented on the results of the trip.
Scientific curator of the Botanic Garden of the University of Osnabrück (Germany), Professor Nikolai V. Friesen took part in the expedition from the German side.
“Given that I am a world-class expert in Allium, I had to confirm the presence of some particular species of this genus and collect samples for DNA analysis. Thus, we managed to bring the diversity of Allium species into compliance for the territory of Eastern Kazakhstan. For example, one of the species was incorrectly considered to be Allium tenuissimum, while in fact it is Allium bellulum. Other problems with the taxonomy of this group were also solved. Apart from joint scientific expeditions with South-Siberian Botanic Garden scientists, during the last 10 years we have organized and held 4 scientific and educational student practical training for young botanists of the University of Osnabrück and Altai State University. In the course of this expedition we discussed the itinerary and organizational issues of the 5th practical training, which will be carried out in 2017. It will probably be conducted on the territory of Western and Central Altai. Joint work with ASU botanists is a serious, mutually-beneficial relationship aimed at long-term cooperation,” noted Nikolai V. Friesen.
“We have discovered some species of Potentilla that are new for Kazakhstan flora, so it will be an addition to “Altai Flora” project. I participated in all practical trainings with German students. This spring I have defended my Candidate’s thesis. The experience of our German colleagues has always been interesting to me. I think that sharing the experience allows expanding the opportunities of scientific work in terms of new relations, opinions and methods, which are not widely present in our research laboratories,” said Candidate of Biology, South-Siberian Botanic Garden employee Alexey A. Kechaikin.
