On 21 March 2022, Larysa (Yakivna) Partyka, an expert of the Ukrainian bryoflora and a Senior Researcher of M.H. Kholodny Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, sadly passed away.
Larysa Partyka was born on 22 January 1932 in the village of Zavalijky in the Volochysk district of the Khmelnytsk oblast of Ukraine. Following her education at Volochysk Secondary School, she studied biology from 1951 to 1956 in the Biological and Soil Science Faculty of T. H. Shevchenko Kyiv State University, specializing in the Department of Lower Plants headed by the Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Prof., DSci. Dmytro K. Zerov; other well-known teachers during this period of her life were Professors Alfred M. Oxner and Oleksandr V. Topachevsky. These three Ukrainian scientists were all Academician Olexandr V. Fomin's students and founders of the Bryological, Lichenological and Algological Scientific Schools of the Kyiv Cryptogamic School of Kyiv Academy since 1920th and 1930th. Consequently, Larysa became a student and co-worker of Dmytro Zerov for many years, and her colleagues learnt much from the founders of Kyiv Cryptogamic School through her and she became an important link to previous generations.
After her graduation, Larysa worked at the Odessa City Trust of Green Construction for three years. She moved to Kyiv in 1959 where she was affiliated with the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, now the M. H. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. At first, she was engaged as a laboratory assistant at the Department of Spore Plants, later undertaking a PhD supervised by Dmytro Zerov and defended her candidate thesis on the ‘Bryoflora of the Crimean Mountains’ in 1966. From 1965 to 1982, she was a junior researcher, and from 1982 to 1989 senior researcher at the Department of Mycology and Bryology. She retired in 1989 but continued to work at the Institute for many years identifying moss collections, writing papers and monographs.
Larysa Partyka is the author and co-author of more than 80 scientific publications, focusing mainly on the bryoflora of mountainous regions of Crimea and Carpathians. She began her studies of the bryophytes of the Crimea during her post-graduate studies during 1963–1964. Later, in 1983–1985 she had the chance to investigate the bryoflora of Crimea again. A series of articles, a candidate's thesis, and a monograph on the bryoflora of Crimea in 2005 were published, which included 312 species, of which 75 were listed for the first time, including nine new species for Ukraine, and one species, Anoectangium handelii Schiffn., new to Europe. New and rare taxa for the region were also presented in separate articles, including the question of the origin of the Crimean bryoflora, in particular its connection with the Caucasian bryoflora, and the bryophytes of protected territories such as the Crimean, the Karadag and the ‘Cape Martyan’, Yaltynsky reserves.
After completing her study of the bryoflora of the Carpathians in 1966–1970 together with Dmytro Zerov, a monograph, ‘Mosses of the Ukrainian Carpathians’, was published in 1975; this was the first comprehensive study of bryophytes, comprising 653 species and their ecological, coenotic and phytogeographical characteristics. Larysa also worked with the Ukrainian bryologists Ganna F. Bachurina, Kupava O. Ulychna, and Mykhailo F. Boiko, and co-authored several important publications with them, such as ‘Liverworts and Mosses of Ukraine and adjacent Territories’ in 1979 with Ganna Bachurina, and other articles on the Bryoflora of Ukrainian Polissia and the bryological herbarium of the M. H. Kholodny Institute of Botany. She compiled the ‘Flora of Mosses of Ukraine’ in 2003. She coauthored with K. O. Ulychna an article on the rare species of the bryoflora of Ukraine and the need for their protection, which later formed the basis of the bryological part of the second and third editions of the ‘Red Book of Ukraine’ in 1996 and 2009.
Larysa participated in expeditions, and long-distance journeys, from which she always brought back collections for the Institute's herbarium or provided new bryological literature. She travelled in Georgia, Tajikistan, Western Siberia, and the Kola Peninsula and often visited the Botanical Institute in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).
The combination of her botanical erudition and her ability to pass on her knowledge to students characterizes Larysa Partyka. She was the external examiner (‘opponent’) of several doctoral and candidate theses and authored many reviews, abstracts, articles and books. She was consulted on issues concerning biodiversity, biogeographic and conservation studies of bryophytes of Ukraine, in particular regarding mountainous regions and protected areas.
Larysa was a kind person and happy to advise anybody, communicating with friends, inviting them to her home, making them homemade delicious dishes and donating hand-made crafts. She had an outstanding ability for needlework, sewing, knitting and embroidery and was especially fond of making various bead products. She often visited exhibitions, museums, and theatres with colleagues, but her main hobby stemmed from her love of books – she was an avid reader.
With the death of Larysa Partyka we have lost one of the last direct students of the founder of the Ukrainian Cryptogamic Scientific School, the oldest scientific School of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
© 2023 The Authors. This is an Open Access article
