J. J. Manissadijan

J. J. Manissadijan (1862-1942) was a botanist living in the Ottoman Empire.

Life

His mother was German, his father Armenian. He went to Germany in order to study natural history at the Humboldt University at Berlin. In 1890, he became Professor of Botany at the American Anatolia College in Marsovan (also spelled Mersiwan) in Paphlagonia in Northeastern Anatolia, where he also founded a museum. Manissadijan collected plants in the Black Sea region of the Ottoman Empire. He discovered several new species of bulbous plants that were published by the Austrian Botanist Josef Franz Freyn. He also collected butterflies and other insects. He also supplied commercial gardeners in the Netherland, foremost van Tubergen, with plant material from the Pontus region. Among those were bulbs of the now locally extinct Sprenger's tulip from the Amasya region.

Manissadijan left Merzifon after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and emigrated to the United States.

Species

Species named after Manissadijan:

• Iris manissadijani
• Merenda manissadijani

References

• Brian Mathew, Turhan Baytop 1984. The bulbous Plants of Turkey. London, Batsford, p. 12.
• J. Freyn 1894. Plantae novae Orientates. Österreichische botanische Zeitschrift, 324-327.
• A Portrait of Manissadijan is published in Brian Mathew, Turhan Baytop 1984. The bulbous Plants of Turkey. London, Batsford, Pl. 12.