In 2010 the 60th birthday of Professor Harald Kürschner was
celebrated. This German bryologist has been associated for nearly 30
years with the Institute of Biology of the Free University of Berlin,
where he passed all the milestones of his academic career, from
assistant in 1982 to the professorship to which he was appointed in
2006. His scientific interests span a broad range of topics in
bryology and geobotany. The main regions of his activity are the Near
East, Central Asia and Europe, including Macaronesia, but he has also
worked and published accounts from tropical Asia (Borneo), Africa
(Rwanda, Congo) and South America (Ecuador, Peru). Kürschner’s work
covers a wide spectrum of scientific branches, from systematics
through phytogeography and ecology (with special reference to the life
strategies and ecomorphological adaptations of bryophytes) to
phytosociology and geobotany. Although he is engaged primarily in the
study of bryophytes, he is also an eminent expert on vascular plants,
which he has dealt with in numerous publications. During the more than
thirty years of his scientific career, Harald Kürschner has published
about 240 research papers and has undertaken nearly 70 scientific
research journeys. As befits the occasion of his 60th birthday, his
colleagues, friends and disciples have completed a special volume
dedicated to the celebrant in recognition of his huge contribution to
bryology and plant science.
The Harald Kürschner Festschrift consists of 23 papers contributed by
an international gallery of 45 authors from 16 European countries and
the United States of America. They are arranged in four subject groups
corresponding to the main research areas of Harald Kürschner, namely
systematics (8 papers), phytodiversity (9), phytosociology (3) and
bryophyte ecology (3). As is the custom with festschrifts, the volume
begins with a biographical sketch of the celebrant written by his
friend and collaborator of many years, Professor Wolfgang Frey, who
also edited the book. This introductory tribute is illustrated with
photographs from various scientific expeditions which are of no small
historical value. In most festschrifts the person to whom are they
dedicated serves as an eponym for newly described taxa, and that is
the case here. Professor Kürschner’s name is immortalised in the
generic name Kuerschneria Ochyra & Bednarek-Ochyra which was
established for a Brazilian endemic species, K. laevigata (Herzog)
Ochyra & Bednarek-Ochyra, of the family Sematophyllaceae, and in two
African liverwort species of the Lejeuneaceae: Lejeunea kuerschneriana
Pócs from Kenya and Ceratolejeunea kuerschneri Eb. Fisch. &
Vanderpoorten from Gabon.
The papers presented in this volume should be of interest to
bryologists working in various fields. In the section on systematics,
five new species are described, including Oxystegus minor Köckinger,
O. Werner & Ros from Europe, and a number of new synonyms have been
proposed for exotic hepatics and mosses. Among the taxonomic accounts,
the surveys of the genera Gymno stomiella M. Fleisch., Palustriella
Ochyra and Oxystegus (Broth.) Hilp. in Europe should be of general
interest. The first is based upon a morphometric analysis of the
species concerned, and the other two papers include molecular
analyses. The remaining systematic papers are classical studies based
on morphological and anatomical features. They provide new country or
continental records and offer a number of taxonomic and nomenclatural
novelties. The change of name and generic placement of the well known
Asian species Forsstroemia remotifolia (Broth.) Hedenäs & Zare
(formerly Pseudoleskeella laxiramea (Schiffn.) Broth.) merits the
special attention of students of the moss flora of the Near East.
The section on phytogeography consists of nine papers devoted to the
bryodiversity of various regions of the globe, ranging from Europe
(Greece, Montenegro, Turkey) and Macaronesia (Selvagens Islands)
through Asia (India, Bhutan, Nepal, China) to southern South America
(Isla Navarino in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago) and the very
isolated and remote Île Amsterdam in the South Indian Ocean. They give
many valuable and interesting records of taxa which often throw new
light on the phytogeographical status of the species.
The phytosociological and ecological sections comprise two accounts of
neotropical trunk epiphytes, a treatment of the bryophyte vegetation
of the Pelagian Archipelago in the Sicily Channel, a description of a
new aquatic moss association from France and an ecological study of
the hepatic genus Porella L. in Madeira. The final article is a
valuable and interesting contribution dealing with asexual
reproduction by various types of propagule in common and widespread
European moss species, including Abietinella abietina (Hedw.)
M. Fleisch., Pleurozium schreberi (Brid.) Mitt., Pseudoscleropodium
purum (Hedw.) Broth. and Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus (Hedw.) Warnst. It
is generally overlooked that these species propagate mainly through
clonal reproduction by more or less specialized propagules, including
brood branches or branchlets, caducous shoot apices and caducous
leaves.
Harald Kürschner deserves special recognition for his distinguished
scholarship and outstanding contributions to bryology and geobotany,
and the present collection of papers honoring his scientific and
academic career is the best gift he could receive from his friends and
disciples on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The book’s pleasing
appearance, perspicuous editorial style and elegant printing, coupled
with its high scientific standard, make it a highly absorbing work.
Ryszard OCHYRA
Polish Botanical Journal 56 (1), 2011
