Natalia Mikhailovna Savich and her contribution to syntaxonomy

This paper presents the brief biography of the Russian geobotanist N. M. Savich (1894–1990). Her life was long and dramatic. She faced criminal charges twice, accused of dissent and anti-Soviet statements. As a result, N. M. Savich was only able to actively pursue geobotany for a short period, from 1920 to 1936. Moreover, for three years of them (1930–1933), she conducted geobotanical research while in exile in Eastern Siberia. After 1936, she was denied employment in her field and was forced to work as a laboratory assistant at a district clinic. N. M. Savich was one of the first Russian phytosociologists whose association names comply with the rules of the «International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature». This fact was first recognized in the publication by G. S. Taran (2004), who cited the names of four associations established by N. M. Savich: Phragmitetum communis Savich 1926, Eleocharitetum palustris Savich 1926 nom. corr., Caricetum gracilis Savich 1926, Caricetum aquatilis Savich 1926. Publication by G. S. Taran was noticed by the Czech geobotanist K. Šumberová, which was initially reflected in the work of her graduate student (Juříček, 2009), who named the plant community dominated by Carex acuta L. Caricetum gracilis Savich 1926. Then the first three of the above-mentioned association names appeared in the «Katalog biotopů České republiky» (“Vegetation of the Czech Republic”, the chapters on relevant associations within the class Phragmito-Magno-Caricetea, see Šumberová, 2011a, b, c). K. Šumberová transliterated the surname Savich into letters of the Czech alphabet, so it was written as Savič. She also performed the correction of the name Phragmitetum communis Savič 1926, which began to look like Phragmitetum australis Savič 1926 nom. corr. Subsequently, the name Caricetum gracilis also underwent a correction, which began to be used as Caricetum acutae Savič 1926 nom. corr. After the publication of the third volume of «Vegetace České Republiky», the above-mentioned names of associations with the authorship of N. M. Savič were established in Italy (Landucci et al., 2013; Lastrucci et al., 2023), the Asian part of Turkey (Özdeniz et al., 2017), France (Delcoigne, Thébaud, 2018; Terrin, Hamon, 2022), Montenegro (Stešević et al., 2020), Ukraine (Rozenblit, 2020), Austria and Slovakia (Willner et al., 2022). There are numerous other publications, both in Russia and abroad, in which the names of the associations Phragmitetum australis, Eleocharitetum palustris, Caricetum acutae appear, authored by N.M. Savich. In many cases, these publications transliterate Savich’s name as K. Šumberová did – Savič. Three years after the publication of «Vegetace České republiky» V. Chepinoga (2014) recognized another association name authored by N. M. Savich, namely, Glycerietum spiculosae Savich 1967. As can be seen, numerous precedents already exist for the use of association names established by N. M. Savich in syntaxonomy. The author proposes to introduce into scientific circulation additionally the following names of associations proposed by N. M. Savich: Alopecuretum pratensis Savich 1926, Beckmannietum eruciformis Savich 1926, Caricetum appendiculatae Savich 1967, Caricetum canescentis Savich 1926, Caricetum loliaceae Savich 1926, Caricetum pseudocuraicae Savich 1967, Caricetum salinae Savich 1926, Deschampsietum caespitosae Savich 1928, Equisetetum fluviatilis Savich 1928 nom. corr., Festucetum rubrae Savich 1926, Glycerietum fluitantis Savich 1926, Poetum trivialis Savich 1928, Poo angustifoliae–Veratretum albi Savich 1928 nom. invers.