The history of botanical investigations in South-East Latvia

South-East Latvia that embraces Southern Latgalia and Eastern Selonia has inherited a rich history of botanical investigations. First of them were started in 1818 by the Roman Catholic priest of Lithuanian descent and the teacher of natural history at the Ilūkste Missionary School Jozef Fiedoriwicz (1777-1860) and later continued by Eduard Lehmann (1841-1902), Theophil Bienert (1833-1973) and Karl Reinhold Kupffer (1872-1935). The outstanding Latvian and Baltic botanist E. Lehmann and K.R. Kupffer have started their scientific path in the vicinity of Grīva Town near Daugavpils City. At the beginning of the 20th century only episodic investigations were carried out in the region (K. R. Kupffer, N. Malta). They gained a new scope along with the proclamation of the independent Republic of Latvia in 1919. The most outstanding botanists during the period of the first Republic of Latvia were N. Malta, K. Starcs, A. Villerts and A. Apinis. After the World War II investigations became more active along with the establishment of the Daugavpils Pedagogic Institute in 1952 when formation of the present-day herbarium of the Daugavpils University was started. In 1950's and 1960's many well-known botanists and biologists of Latvia investigated the flora of the region, e.g., A. Rasiņš, E. Vimba, A. Āboliņa, A. Mauriņš, I. Riekstiņš, K. Birkmane, E. Ozoliņa, A. Šulcs, Ģ. Gavrilova, Z. Spuris. Significant investigations starting by 1975 were carried out by the staff of the Laboratory of Botany of the Institute of Biology run under the guidance of L. Tabaka at the University of Latvia (at that time at the Academy of Sciences) and resulting in comprehensive monographs about the flora of South-East Latvia. The investigations of 1976 -1983 were carried out in the valley of River Daugava and were summarized in a monograph by I. Fatare. In course of several decades the dendroflora of the region was investigated by dedrologists of the National Botanical Garden under the guidance of R. Cinovskis and since 1993 continued by P. Evarts-Bunders. Bryological investigations in the region were carried by A. Āboliņa, B. Bambe and U. Uško. Investigations of aquatic macrophytes in lakes of the region were started in 1986 by U. Suško. Investigations of charophytes were performed in the region by u. Suško and E. Zviedre. In last decades phytosociological investigations in the region are performed by B. Bambe, V. Kreile, M. Laiviņš, M. Pakalne, N. Priedītis, S. Rūsiņa and L. Laimiņa. Since 200