Franz Petrak

Franz Petrak
Born(1886-10-09)October 9, 1886
Mährisch-Weißkirchen, Austria
DiedOctober 9, 1973(1973-10-09) (aged 87)
Vienna, Austria
Alma materUniversity of Vienna
Scientific career
FieldsBotany, Mycology
Author abbrev. (botany)Petr.

Franz Petrak (9 October 1886, Mährisch-Weißkirchen – 9 October 1973, Vienna) was an Austrian-Czech mycologist.

From 1906 to 1910, he studied botany at the University of Vienna, where he was a student of Richard Wettstein. In 1913, he obtained his doctorate of sciences, and until 1916, worked as a high school teacher in Vienna. During World War I, he was stationed in Galicia and Albania, where he collected specimens in his spare time.[1] From 1918 to 1938, he worked as a private scientist in his home town, and from 1938 to 1951, was associated with the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.[2]

He was the author of nearly 500 published works, primarily in the field of mycology.[3] Much of his mycological work was published in the journal Annales mycologici and its successor Sydowia. Reportedly, his private herbarium contained 100,000 specimens.[2] Starting from 1908 until 1970 he edited exsiccatae by distributing large sets of fungal and plant specimens.[4]

As a taxonomist, he described numerous species within the genus Cirsium (family Asteraceae).[5]

The mycological genera of; Petrakia Syd. & P.Syd. 1913 (family Pseudodidymellaceae), Petrakiella Syd. 1924 (Phyllachoraceae), Franzpetrakia Thirum. & Pavgi 1957 (Ustilaginaceae), Petrakiopeltis Bat., A.F.Vital & Cif. 1958 (Microthyriaceae), Petrakiopsis Subram. & K.R.C.Reddy 1968 (Ascomycota) and Petrakina (family Asterinaceae) have all been named in his honor, the latter genus being circumscribed by Raffaele Ciferri in 1932.[2][6]

Franz Petrak died 9 October 1973 in Vienna.[7]

  1. ^ "3.2. Pilz-Herbarien (P) Fungi P (Collectors Index Herbarium M)" (in German). University of Munich. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications". Biodiversity Heritage Library. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  3. ^ Schaeuer, Christian. "Alphabetical Index to Mycotheca generalis". University of Graz. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  4. ^ Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.
  5. ^ "List of plants described and co-described by Petrak". International Plant Names Index.
  6. ^ Burkhardt, Lotte (2022). Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen [Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names] (pdf) (in German). Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin. doi:10.3372/epolist2022. ISBN 978-3-946292-41-8. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  7. ^ "Franz Petrak zum Gedenken" [Franz Petrak in Memoriam] (PDF). Ann. Naturhistor. Mus. Wien (in German). 81. Vienna: 661–664. February 1978.