The Department of Botany and Plant Physiology and the museum presented results of their efforts on 23nd November.
The botanical section of the Zoological Museum was opened in 1991. However, until yesterday it had not functioned as a museum and had only been available for students and employees. Now, the section is open for everyone.
Director of the KFU Museum Complex Svetlana Frolova and Chair of the Department of Botany and Plant Physiology Olga Timofeeva welcomed everyone at the unveiling.
Head of the Botanical Section Luiza Kadyrova shared, “We want to attract young people to botany and tell them about its huge diversity. Our main goal is to popularize botanical knowledge.” She added that the exposition is now situated in the office which once belonged to Vladimir Baranov, Chair of the Department of Botany in 1932 – 1967. In 1947, he started his systematic flora collection. Many of his personal belongings are now parts of the exposition.
Zoological Museum Custodian Kim Potapov spoke about some of the unique storage units, including seeds of Welwitschia mirabilis, a protected species from Western Africa. “We have rare species of mushrooms, many of which are used in medicine, such as lingzhi mushroom. It has immunostimulating and antitumor properties.”
The audience was very much interested in wet mounts used in studies, such as leaf prints, ancient wood, and fruits. The collection covers eons from the Permian to the Pleistocene.