Sandor Javorka

* Hegybánya, March 12, 1883 – † Budapest, September 28, 1961 / botanist, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences ; ; He completed his secondary school studies in Selmecbánya. He received his doctorate in humanities from the Budapest University of Science and Technology in 1906. From 1905 he was an employee of the Botanical Garden of the Hungarian National Museum: from 1907 to 1912 he was a museum assistant keeper, from 1912 he was a keeper, then a director keeper. In 1919 he was appointed director of the Botanical Garden during the Soviet Republic, but after Miklós Horthy came to power he was reclassified as an associate. Between 1934 and 1940, he was director again until his retirement. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1936 and a full member in 1943. As a scientist, he primarily dealt with flora research. In 1918, he studied the flora of Northern Albania on behalf of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and later traveled throughout the Carpathian Basin and many areas of the Balkan Peninsula. During his six-decade career, he spent about 2,200 days outdoors! During his field trips, he collected about 22,000 sheets of herbarium material, discovered and described 120 new plant species, and about 40 flowering and non-flowering plants bear his name. He prepared monographic studies on several plant genera and families (e.g. Onosma – heather, Ericaceae – heathers, Hieracium – lady’s mantle, Linum – flax, Sorbus – mountain ash, Castanea – chestnut). His main work is considered to be the 1,400-page two-volume work entitled Hungarian Flora (Flora Hungarica), published in 1924–1925, which provides a critical overview of all higher plant species of the Carpathian Basin. From the 1920s onwards, he collaborated closely with Vera Csapody (1890–1985), the first Hungarian female mathematics and physics teacher, botanist, and plant illustrator, who produced very expressive and lifelike plant drawings for many of her books. Their largest joint venture was Iconographia Florae Hungaricae (The Hungarian Flora in Pictures) I-III. (1929–1934). This publication was republished in 1975 and 1979, in Hungarian, German, and English translations. Also well-known and popular is the work of Sándor Jávorka and Vera Csapody entitled The Flowers of the Forest Field, which was first published in 1950 and has since been reissued in several new editions. Another joint work is the volume Our Garden Flowers, published in 1962. Sándor Jávorka's work on the history of botany was also significant. Between 1926 and 1945, he organized the herbarium legacy and herbariums of Pál Kitaibel. In 1957, he published his monograph entitled Pál Kitaibel. In numerous obituaries, he praised the life work of prominent Hungarian botanists (e.g. János Csató, Sándor Mágócsy-Dietz, Endre Gombocz, Rajmund Rapaics and others). From 1954, he was the editor-in-chief of the journal Acta Botanica. His other works: Forests of Hungary, 1920, Hungarian Herbs I-II. (with Béla Augustin, Rudolf Giovanni and Pál Rom), 1948, Handbook of Hungarian Flora (with Rezső Soó), 1951, Forest-field Plants (with Vera Csapody and István Csapody), 1980.