Professor Józef Mądalski's herbarium – a pearl of Polish botanical collections in the digital repository

Professor Józef Mądalski (1902‒1995) was a botanist and one of the most prolific Polish plant collectors. His original herbarium, made with due diligence, was donated to the W. Szafer Institute of Botany PAS, Kraków, in 1991. J. Mądalski's herbarium consists of 38,292 numbered sheets (in fact, there are over 40,000 of these sheets, if numerous doublets and three lichen fascicles are taken into account). The most valuable items in the herbarium are vouchers that served as a base for illustrations for the Atlas of Polish flora and neighboring lands published by Professor Mądalski in 1954–1990, and the nomenclatural types of Crepis rhooeadiofolia M.B. var. glandulifera J. Mądalski (hb. Mądalski 8209, 8115, 8174, 10269), Festuca vaginata var. aristata M. Pawlus (hb. Mądalski 23880), and Galium mollugo L. subp. erectum (Huds.) Syme fo. longifolium I. Kucowa (hb. Mądalski 4342). More information about this valuable herbarium can be found in the article by prof. Andrzej Chlebicki entitled "Zielnik prof. dr Józefa Mądalskiego" published in Wiadomości Botaniczne (download PDF).

As part of the OZwRCIN project, our Institute made 15,387 sheets from J. Mądalski's herbarium available through RCIN (Digital Repository of Scientific Institutes). One of the photos below shows the sheet with number 23880 containing a specimen of Festuca vaginata var. aristata M. Pawlus (nomenclatural type) collected on June 21, 1961, in the village of Blizocin (Trzebnica commune, Lower Silesia province, Poland). We invite you to browse the J. Mądalski's collection.

Sheet with a Myrica gale L. specimen, used as a basis for an illustration for the Atlas of Polish flora and neighboring lands – close-up of the label with Professor Mądalski's handwritten signature.
Photo: RCIN.

The nomenclatural type of Festuca vaginata var. aristata M. Pawlus.
Photo: RCIN.

Professor Mądalski in his office.
Photo: Wiesław Skwirzyński.