Russian civil servant and botanist responsible for studying the flora of the Baikal and Yenisei regions. Nicolas Stepanowitsch Turczaninow was born in Nikitovka in the Kharkov Oblast of Ukraine and studied in Kharkov, the capital city of this province, where he was for a short time Professor of Botany. After graduating in 1814 he moved to St Petersburg in order to work as a civil servant in the departments of justice and finance.

In 1828 Turczaninow was sent on a government mission to Irkutsk and was also commissioned by the Academy of Sciences' Botanic Gardens, undertaking extensive fieldwork into the flora of the region and collecting numerous plant specimens until 1835. Thereafter he worked for the government in Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei River and became president of the civil council of the Yenisei government. Turczaninow also collected extensively in that region and amassed an impressive herbarium.

Retiring to Taganrog in 1845 he suffered extremely bad luck. Firstly, the two friends in Taganrog which he had moved to be close to (who were medics and botanists), both died on his arrival, and later while lifting a large packet of plants, he slipped and fell down stairs sustaining considerable internal injuries. These left him bed-ridden for many months and he soon returned to Kharkov (1847), turning his attention to the study of taxonomy and writing papers, commissioning others to collect for him.

Between 1842 and 1857 Turczaninow published a flora of Transbaikal from his earlier research; entitled Flora Baicalensi-Dahurica it has since been considered one of the greatest classical regional floras of Russia. Remaining in Kharkov until his death Turczaninow is responsible for a further 12 botanical papers and the Asteraceae genus Turczaninovia DC. was named after him by De Candolle, as are several other plant species.

Sources:
J.D. Hooker, 1846, London Journal of Botany, 5: 533-534
E. von Lindemann, 1885, "Dritter bericht üren den bestand meines herbariums" Bulletin Société Naturalistes Moscou, 61: 80
S.G. Shetler, 1967, The Komarov Botanical Institute
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2).