Botanical Research and Herbaria of N.A. and E.A. Bush as Historical and Scientific Heritage in the Study of Mountain Ecosystems of the Central Caucasus

The article was aimed at summarising the contribution of Nikolai Adolfovich Bush and Elizaveta Alexandrovna Bush to the herbarium formation in Kabardino-Balkar Republic, as well as presenting the results of digitisation of their herbarium collection preserved in the herbarium fund of the Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after Kh.M. Berbekov (KBNG). We also compared the herbarium collections of KBNG and the National Museum of Kabardino-Balkar Republic, the Syreyshchikov Herbarium of Moscow State University (MW) (https://plant.depo.msu.ru/) and the Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LE) (https://herbariumle.ru/), which also preserved herbarium specimens from the expeditions of N.A. Bush and E.A. Bush in the Central Caucasus. We have analysed and summarised literary sources, including archival data containing information about N.A. Bush and E.A. Bush efforts on herbarium formation in the Central Caucasus. Using a modern planetary (orbital) scanner ElarScan A2-400.VK we digitized herbarium specimens of N.A. Bush and E.A. Bush collection from the KBNG. The herbarium collection of N.A. Bush and E.A. Bush in the KBNG currently contains 159 species and subspecies of angiosperms plants from 95 genera and 39 families. The specimens were dated 1925 and 1927 and collected in the highlands of the main mountain gorges of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic. The National Museum collection includes 109 herbarium specimens of angiosperms plants (doublets), including 94 species and subspecies from 22 families. Only 35 taxa were common to the KBNG and National Museum collections. Of these, only four species are also represented in the MW. Among the herbaria of N.A. Bush and E.A. Bush in the Central Caucasus preserved in in the digitised part of the LE there are no common species with the collection from Kabardino-Balkaria. We digitised 264 herbarium specimens from the KBNG collection including specimens of new to science and rare species. In digitized form, the historical herbarium collection of N.A. Bush and E.A. Bush from KBNG will be available for analysis and study to a wide range of interested users (https://herbariumle.ru/).