Biography

German botanist and explorer responsible for the first comprehensive flora of the Crimeo-Caucasian region. Born in Stuttgart Friedrich Marschall von Bieberstein started out on a career in the military, following in his father's footsteps, and began to work for the prince of Oettingen-Wallerstein. After briefly being based in Vienna, he moved to Jassy (now Iasi in Romania) where he served as secretary to the count of Kochovski, a Russian general, at the time of the treaty of Iasi. In 1793 von Bieberstein became aide-de-camp to Kochovski and was posted in Crimea. For many years he had been interested in natural history but after meeting fellow German naturalist, P.S. Pallas, he began to collect purposefully in the region over the following three years. In 1795 he returned to St. Petersburg and was sent with the invading forces into Persia. Continuing to collect herbarium specimens all along the way, he published an account of his journey in French in 1798 (and in German in 1800) which contained a great deal of botanical information, including 74 new species descriptions.

In 1799 von Bieberstein would return to southern Russia when he was appointed privy-councillor responsible for the development of sericulture in southern Russia, giving him a wealth of opportunity to travel in the region and continue his botanical studies. In 1804 he took another great step towards the completion of his flora when the Russian government sent him on a scientific mission to Germany and France, where he studied Near East specimens in the Tournefort herbarium in Paris.

Von Bieberstein married a Finnish woman named Miss Klick in 1804 and together they moved to Marefa. Very soon afterwards he began to publish the Flora Taurico Caucasica (1808-1819) which would ultimately contain the description of 2,322 phanerogamic species. Von Bieberstein remained in Marefa for the rest of his life and he developed orchards at Penz and Poltava as well as supervising the military pharmaceutical gardens of Ukraine. In 1910 he published a work with illustrations of south Russian plants entitled Centuria plantarum rariorum Rossiae meridionalis, in which 50 of his own hand-coloured engravings can be seen. His herbarium of 10,000 or so specimens was deposited in St. Petersburg (LE) and he received many honours, including belonging to the order of St. Vladimir.

Sources:
F.A. Stafleu, 1973, "Marschall von Bieberstein and his Flora Taurico Caucasia", Taxon, 22:126-128.