ACTA BOT. CROAT. 78 (1), 2019 S5 Social news Professor emeritus Ljudevit Ilijanić: an appreciation on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday Professor Ljudevit Ilijanić was the editor-in-chief of the journal Acta Botanica Croatica in the period from 1969 to 1992, when, thanks to his dedication, the journal was the main source of botanical information from Croatia for bota- nists in this country and as well the wider world. Ljudevit Ilijanić was born on September 27, 1928 in the village of Slapno near the town of Ozalj (Karlovac County), where he completed his elementary education. He finished at the Higher Real Gymnasium in the city of Karlovac in 1947 and graduated in Biological Sciences at the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb in 1952 with the theme 'Investigating Flora of Ozalj and its Surroundings'. In 1953, after graduation obtained an assistant's position in the Bot- any Division of the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. Professor Ilijanić spent his entire professional work at this Faculty where he has been an assistant professor since 1963, associate professor since 1969, and a full professor since 1974 until retiring in 1993. He defended his PhD thesis 'Ecological and Phytoso- ciological Studies on the Lowland Meadows of Croatia' in 1960, and then spent a year of postdoctoral training at the Station Internationale de Géobotanique Méditerranéenne et Alpine (SIGMA) in Montpellier (France) with phytosociolo- gist Josias Braun-Blanquet (1884-1980). Sabbaticals in for- mer Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Germany and the USA helped to establish and maintain his interna- tional contacts. Professor Ilijanić served as Head of the Department of Biology in the period 1970-1971, and vice-dean of the Fac- ulty of Science in the academic years 1974-1975 and 1975- 1976, and the Head of the Botany Division in the period 1987-1989. In 2000 the Senate of the University of Zagreb gave Ljudevit Ilijanić the special recognition of Professor emeritus. As a teacher, Professor Ilijanić took particular pride in his role in creating the curriculum for the first students of ecol- ogy at the University of Zagreb. He taught several courses in the field of Plant Ecology and Geobotany in undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and also set up and organized an ecological practicum program. He supervised more than 50 MSc theses, and a fair number of PhD theses. The purely scientific work of Professor Ljudevit Ilijanić has been oriented to the flora and vegetation of Croatia. His numerous updates to the Croatian flora constitute an im- portant contribution to plant distribution and ecology. No- tably, he was the first to start extensive ecological research into grassland vegetation in Croatia. Further published work relates to swamp, peat and halophilous plant communities, emphasizing phytosociological and autecological approach- es. He particularly encouraged studies on vegetation dynam- ics and succession. Ljudevit Ilijanić, as an author or with his co-authors, described new syntaxonomic units: the alliance Trifolion pallidi Ilijanić 1969, and associations e.g. Serratu- lo-Plantaginetum altissimae Ilijanić 1967, Ventenato-Trifo- lietum pallidi Ilijanić 1967, Limonietum anfracti Ilijanić et S. Hećimović 1982, and several more subassociations. His con- cept of the wet meadows vegetation of the humid continen- tal regions of the north-central Balkans was also included in the recent comprehensive work 'Vegetation of Europe', col- loquially known as EuroVegChecklist (Mucina et al. 2016). In total, Professor Ilijanić’s research oeuvre published in national and international journals comprises about a hun- dred papers, some of which laid the very foundations to the study of plant communities in Croatia. In addition, he au- thored more than 40 popular science papers and 250 articles and entries in encyclopedias of the Croatian Lexicographic Institute. A lists and analysis of the scientific papers authored by Professor Ljudevit Ilijanić have previously been published in the Acta Botanica Croatica (Marković 1993, Regula and Regula 2000). Professor Ljudevit Ilijanić during the investigation of vegetation on the Dinara Mt. in 2008 (photo: J. Topić). S6 ACTA BOT. CROAT. 78 (1), 2019 I list here his papers published after 1999 in chronologi- cal order: 1. Tomašević, M., Samardžić, I., Ilijanić, Lj., 1999: New lo- calities of the species Doronicum orientale Hoffm. (As- teraceae) in Croatia. Natura Croatica 8, 87–93. 2. Ilijanić, Lj., Topić, J., 2000: Cyperaceae. In: Nikolić, T. (ed.) Flora Croatica: Index florae Croaticae. Pars 3. Na- tura Croatica 9, Suppl. 1, 123–129. 3. Ilijanić, Lj., Topić, J., 2000: Poaceae. In: Nikolić, T. (ed.) Flora Croatica: Index florae Croaticae. Pars 3. Natura Croatica 9, Suppl. 1, 130–149. 4. Ilijanić, Lj., Topić, J., 2002: Eriophorum vaginatum L. (Cyperaceae), new and critically endagered plant spe- cies in Croatia. Razprave IV razreda SAZU 4, 217–225. 5. Ilijanić, Lj., Andreškić, A., Cigić, P., 2005: Aeluropus lit- toralis (Gouan) Parl. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vascular flora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 104–105. Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 6. Ilijanić, Lj., Cigić, P., Nikolić, T., 2005: Lathyrus ochrus (L.) DC. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vas- cular flora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 192–193. Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 7. Ilijanić, Lj., Rešetnik, I., Nikolić, T., 2005: Plantago in- dica L. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vas- cular flora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 221–222. Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 8. Ilijanić, Lj., Rešetnik, I., Nikolić, T., 2005: Puccinellia dis- tans (L.) Parl. ssp. distans. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vascular flora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 230–231. Ministarstvo kulture Repub- like Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 9. Ilijanić, Lj., Andreškić, A., Cigić, P., 2005: Scirpus mucro- natus L. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vas- cular flora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 241–242. Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 10. Ilijanić, Lj., Alegro, A., Praljak, I., 2005: Sporobolus pun- gens (Schreb.) Kunth. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vascular flora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 247–248. Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 11. Ilijanić, Lj., Nikolić, T., Andreškić, A., Cigić, P., 2005: Cyperus rotundus L. In: Nikolić, T., Topić, J. (eds.), Red book of vascular nflora of Croatia: categories EX, RE, CR, EN and VU, 300–301. Ministarstvo kulture Repub- Professor Nenad Jasprica University of Dubrovnik, Institute for Marine and Coastal Research Editor in Chief Acta Botanica Croatica like Hrvatske, Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Zagreb (in Croatian). 12. Topić, J., Ilijanić, Lj., Tvrtković, N., Nikolić, T., 2006: Staništa: Priručnik za inventarizaciju, kartiranje i praćenje stanja. Državni zavod za zaštitu prirode, Za- greb. 13. Ilijanić, Lj., Topić, J., Anić, I., Gottstein, S., Kušan, V., Peternel, H., Hima, V., Ivaštinović, D. (eds.), 2008: Priručnik za kartiranje i upravljanje staništima u Parku prirode Lonjsko polje. Javna ustanova Park prirode Lon- jsko polje, Krapje. 14. Mitić, B., Topić J., Ilijanić, Lj., Jasprica, N., Milović, M., Ruščić, M., Pandža, M., Bogdanović, S., Dolina, K., 2009: Kartiranje flore Dalmacije. Prioritetna područja: otok Pag, estuarij Krke, otok Vis i pučinski otoci, Pelješac i Ml- jet, tok Cetine. Očuvanje i održivo korištenje biološke raznolikosti na dalmatinskoj obali. COAST, UNDP, Split; Prirodoslovno-matematički fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Currently Professor Ilijanić continues to be a member of Editorial board of the scientific journals: Acta Botanica Cro- atica, Natura Croatica and Hacquetia. Professor Ilijanić is a member of several scientific or professional societies: Inter- national Association for Vegetation Science – IAVS, East- ern Alpine and Dinaric Society for Vegetation Ecology – EADSVE, Croatian Society of Natural Sciences, Croatian Ecological Society, Croatian Biological Society, Croatian Bo- tanical Society, etc. For achievements in his work and en- deavours in botanical sciences, Professor Ilijanić has received several commendations. More recently, due to his consider- able contribution to Croatian botanical science, the Croa- tian Botanical Society in 2016 declared Professor Ilijanić an Honorary Member. Today, plant scientists throughout the world appreciate and respect him both as a colleague and as a friend. Profes- sor Ljudevit Ilijanić has acted as 'an ambassador of Croatian botany'. We greatly appreciate his numerous contributions to the scientific community and his years of dedicated and skilled services as editor of Acta Botanica Croatica. I would like to congratulate Professor Ljudevit Ilijanić on his ninetieth birthday, on behalf of all of his colleagues, friends and students, and to pay tribute to him for his outstanding contributions during more than half a century of dedicated work. We all wish him good health and many years of success- ful scientific work for the benefit of Croatian botany. ACTA BOT. CROAT. 78 (1), 2019 S7 References Aguiar, C., Freitag, H., Hennekens, S. M., Tichý, L., 2016: Veg- etation of Europe: hierarchical floristic classifcation system of vascular plant, bryophyte, lichen, and algal communities. Ap- plied Vegetation Science 19, Suppl. 1, 3–264. Regula, I., Regula, Lj., 2000: Professor Ljudevit Ilijanić Dr. Sc. on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. Acta Botanica Cro- atica 59, 1–3. Marković, Lj., 1993: Prof. dr. Ljudevit Ilijanić (Prigodom 65. godišnjice života). Acta Botanica Croatica 52, 155–166. Mucina, L., Bültmann, H., Dierßen, K., Teurillat, J. P., Raus, T.,Čarni, A., Šumberová, K., Raus, T., Di Pietro, R., Gavílan García, R., Chytrý, M., Iakushenko, D., Schaminée, J. H. J., Bergmeier, E., Santos Guerra, A., Daniëls, F. J. A., Ermakov, N., Valachovič, M., Pignatti, S., Rodwell, J. S., Pallas, J., Capelo, J., Weber, H. E., Lysenko, T., Solomesh, A., Dimopolous, P.,