Franz Josef Ruprecht

Who was Franz Josef Ruprecht?

Franz Josef Ruprecht was an Austrian-born physician and botanist active in the Russian Empire, where he was known as Frants Ivanovič Ruprekht.

He was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, and grew up in Prague, where he studied, and graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1836. After a short stint in medical practice in Prague, he was appointed curator of the herbarium of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg in 1839, then assistant director of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden between 1851 and 1855, and professor of botany in 1855 at the University of Saint Petersburg. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1870.

He described many new plants collected in the Russian Far East, including Alaska, then under Russian rule; examples include Adiantum aleuticum, Lonicera maackii, and Phellodendron amurense.

The genus Ruprechtia is named after him.