Nikolai Tzvelev facts for kids

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tzvelev (born January 31, 1925, in Tambov, Russia – died July 19, 2015, in St. Petersburg) was a very important Russian botanist. Botanists are scientists who study plants. Nikolai Tzvelev was an expert in how plants are grouped and named (this is called systematics), where different plants grow (floristry), how plants are built (morphology), and how they change over long periods (evolution). He focused on vascular plants, which are plants that have special tubes to carry water and nutrients, like trees, flowers, and ferns.

One of his biggest achievements was carefully looking at and reorganizing the way the grass family is classified. He also studied how grasses first appeared and how they have changed over time. He was a respected scientist and became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000. When other scientists mention his work, they usually use the short name «Tzvelev».

Discoveries by Tzvelev

Nikolai Tzvelev identified and named many new plants or reclassified existing ones. For example, he recognized a plant called Korringia as its own group (a genus). Before him, another botanist, Anna Prokofevna Czukavina, had only seen it as a small part (a section) of a different plant group called Polygonum.

• Arctanthemum arcticum (L.)Tzvelev. This is a type of daisy found in cold, northern areas.

Images for kids

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  Arctic daisy

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  A chrysanthemum