Árpád von Degen

Who was Árpád von Degen?

Árpád von Degen born on 31 March 1866 in Pozsony, was a Hungarian biologist and botanist whose activities were rooted in theoretical principles and scientific botany. Head of the royal Seed Testing Station in Budapest from 1896, Professor of Botany at the Budapest University from 1927 and member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he died on 30 March 1934 in Budapest.

Dr. Degen traveled in different parts of Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor, and was the first botanist to make an in-depth study of the Velebit flora, recording about 2.200 types of wild plants. The Degenia velebitica Hayek was discovered by him on 17 July 1907. He also described several new species from Albania between the years 1895 and 1897. He had contacts with the Bulgarian tsar Ferdinand and prepared the project for the establishment of the first herbarium at the Natural History Museum in Sofia.