About the World Flora Online project

The Komarov Institute of Botany, Russian Academy of Sciences is one of the oldest scientific institutions in Russia. It was founded in 1714 by Emperor Peter I as an Apothecary Garden. Initially, his goal was to grow medicinal plants for the needs of the army.

At the end of the 18th century, the Apothecary Garden, also called the Medicinal Garden, was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Medico-Surgical Academy (now the S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy) and became its Botanical Garden. In 1823, at the suggestion of Prince V.P. Kochubei it was reorganized into the Imperial Botanical Garden, which began to develop rapidly and soon became one of the leading botanical institutions in the world. In 1913, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of its founding, the Imperial Botanical Garden was named after Peter the Great. After the October Revolution, in 1918 it became known as the Main Botanical Garden of the RSFSR, then from 1925 the Main Botanical Garden of the USSR, and in 1930 it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1931 the Botanical Garden and the Botanical Museum, on the Vasilievsky Island, were merged to become the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which became the country’s leading botanical institution. In 1940 he was named after the outstanding Russian botanist Vladimir Leontievich Komarov .

At present, the institute includes 20 scientific subdivisions, that conduct research in areas of biological diversity, ecology of organisms and communities, biology of development and evolution of living systems, and general genetics, which underpins the plan of fundamental scientific research of the Russian Academy of Sciences Program of fundamental research of the state academies of sciences for 2013–2020.