History

The Institute of Botany was set as an independent institute with a Botanical Garden at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) by Decree No 24 of February 19, 1947 of the National Assembly of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria on the strength of which the Botanical Department of the Royal Institutes for Natural Sciences merged with the Sofia Royal Botanical Garden. Its founder and first Director was Acad. Nikolai Stoyanov, a man of great erudition and scientific authority, who played an important role for the recognition of the Institute of Botany as a significant scientific unit of BAS and one of the pillars of biology of organisms in Bulgaria. The Institute was developing under his guidance from 1947 t0 1962. Next Director was Acad. Daki Yordanov (1962-1973). Prof. Velcho Velchev succeeded him from 1974 to 1993. In 1993, following a decision of the BAS General Assebly and Executive Council, the Institute was divided from Botanical Garden and was headed by Prof. Emanuil Palamarev, DSc. At the present time the Institute of Botany is headed by Prof. Dimitar Peev, DSc.

Fields of scientific research

The Institute of Botany stands out as a comprehensive scientific centre for research into the natural vegetation and mycological genofund in Bulgaria in the following fields: floristic, taxonomic and chemotaxonomic; phytocoenological and ecological; phytogeographical and resource-oriented; historical; anatomical and embryological; biotechnological. It thus covers almost the entire biodiversity spectrum of the vegetation and mycology world on the organism, population, coenopopulation and geohistorical level. This constitutes the indisputable advantage of the Institute of Botany within the system of kindred biological units in the country.

The Institute is the first in Bulgaria research centre that has launched wide-ranging and purposeful investigations in the field of biosystematics, chemotaxonomy, phytocoenology and geobotanical mapping, Tertiary paleobotany and pollen morphology, study and mapping of the wild-growing medicinal plants.

Fundamental and applied scientific research and developments are carried out at the Institute in the different fields of botanical science with a view of studying the biodiversity of the natural flora and vegetation and the fungi; invasion of alien species and their impact on the local ecosystems, establishment of the biological specificities, productivity, energy potential and rotation of elements in the communities; determining the genetic potential, mechanisms and character of the speciation processes; discovering new useful medicinal and aromatic plants as raw-material sources for natural curative and perfumery products; resource-oriented and rational use of plants and fungi with a view of their protection and safeguarding for the posterity; applying of in vitro techniques for rapid plant propagation and for biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in liquid cultures; revealing the evolution of the plant world in Bulgarian lands in the geological history and finding out the factors that have brought about the present status and the changes in it.

Main priorities and achievements of the scientific research:

• Studying biodiversity (floristic, phytocoenotic and mycological) with a view of its historical and contemporary development and protection;
• Studying the ecological parameters of the ecosystems and particularly their vegetation and mycological component;
• Studying the evolutionary mechanisms and laws of development of the Bulgarian plant genofund from the Tertiary until our days;
• Studying the biology and ecology of plants of the Bulgarian wild-growing flora that contain useful substances (biologically active and aromatic);
• Cytoembryological studies of the wild-growing representatives of the Bulgarian flora;
• Biotechnological studies on ex situ conservation of rare and threatened medicinal plants and in vitro biosynthesis of active substances.

Staff

Experimental base and equipment

The Institute of Botany provides the necessary equipment for carrying out research and development projects. It has experimental centres in the Beglika locality (Western Rhodopes), near Dolni Lozen village (Sofia district) and an experimental greenhouse. It has also several laboratories for chemical, caryological, cyto- and chemotaxonomical, phytocoenological, palynological and paleobotanical analysis, also a biotechnological laboratory and a GIS laboratory.

Scientific collections and Library:

• Library (about 26 000 books);
• Herbarium of vascular plants SOM (about 159 200 specimens);
• Mycological collection SOMF (25 600 specimens);
• Collection of plant fossils (about 16 000 specimens), reference palynological collection (about 2 800 species), and cuticle collection (about 2 700 species).

The Institute of Botany publishes an international journal Phytologia Balcanica.