Biography

German (Pomeranian) botanist at the University of Dorpat, who travelled extensively in Russia and is responsible for the first comprehensive flora of the Russian Empire. Carl Friedrich von Ledebour was born in the city of Stralsund which was at that time a part of Sweden, where his father worked as a Swedish Judge-Advocate but died just before Carl Friedrich was born.

Entering the University of Griefswald at the age if 15 he was taught by C.A. Rudolphi, whose paternal influence led the boy to study mathematics and natural sciences. He travelled to Stockholm for his examinations in mathematics in the hope of becoming an engineer officer, which he accomplished, and there came into contact with Carl Linnaeus and Carl Thunberg. Soon he undertook an expedition to the northern Norwegian mountains with a group of mining officers, a trip which succeeded in turning his attention permanently to the study of natural history. On his return to Griefswald Rudolphi recommended him for the position of lecturer at the university, which he was about to vacate, and after presenting his botanical dissertation, Ledebour was appointed demonstrator in botany and director of the Griefswald Botanic Garden at just 20 years old.

Not long afterwards, in 1811, he spent some time in Berlin and here made the acquaintance of explorer P.S. Pallas, who excited Ledebour with plans to document the natural history of the Russian Empire. Ledebour was named professor of mineralogy, botany and zoology at the University of Dorpat and, after a treacherous journey to Prussia by sea in order to avoid the battlefields of the mainland, began his work as a teacher and researcher.

Over the years that followed Ledebour would become one of the most important figures in Russian floristics, travelling to the Altai Mountains, the Kirghiz steppe (Kazakhstan) and finally on to Barnaul with C.A. Meyer and A. von Bunge in 1826. The plants collected on this trip amounted to 1,600 phanerogamic specimens and formed the basis of the Flora Altaica published by the trio in four volumes between 1829 and 1833. At the same time he brought out Icones plantarum novarum (1829-1834).

By far his crowning achievement, however, was his Flora Rossica. Published between 1841 and 1853 it was the first comprehensive flora of the Russian Empire, covering some 6,500 species, and in it he achieved what Pallas was unable to do in his own lifetime. This is perhaps because the latter attempted to produce an illustrated flora, whereas Ledebour's work contained text only and he was able to draw from the works of those before him, who had laboured tirelessly in the field but were unable to compile their findings. He had also resigned from the university when he was named Emeritus in 1836 and moved away from Dorpat; first to Odessa, then Heidelberg and finally to Munich where he spent the remaining eight years of his life. He concentrated his entire retirement on this Magnum opus, which was completed literally days before his death. The genus Ledebouria Roth. Was named after him.

Sources:
Anon, 1855, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 2: 193-194
C.F.P. von Martius, 1852, "Eloge on Ledebour", Journal of Botany, 4: 65-67
W.T. Stearn, 1941, "Ledebour's "Flora Rossica", "Icones Plantarum Novarum" and "Flora Altaica" with a note on Pallas' "Flora Rossica"", Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, 22(2): 225-230.