ACTA BOT. CROAT. 80 (1), 2021 S3

In memoriam   

 

In memoriam Zorana Sedlar  
(1980-2020)

A year bad in so many ways, 2020 is especially bitter for 
the small botanical community in Croatia due to the pre-
mature and sudden loss of Zorana Sedlar (Fig. 1). She was 
not only a member of the community, she was also its 
cheerful, smiling and optimistic side, always ready to help 
and support her colleagues and friends. Zorana was born 
in Zagreb, but she was strongly connected with the Adri-
atic and the island of Molat, where her mother’s family 
comes from. She completed her primary and secondary ed-
ucation in Zagreb and in 1998 started the study of biology 
at the Faculty of Science. She graduated in 2004 with a the-
sis in plant physiology, and in the same year she started 
working at the Botanical Division of the same Faculty as a 
research assistant. She was involved in projects related to 
research into vegetation ecology and the biogeography of 
flora and vegetation of Croatia. She was also involved in 
teaching as an assistant in practical classes in plant ecology, 
geobotany, vegetation ecology and the related fieldwork. 
Her excellent knowledge of the Italian language enabled her 
to visit the University of Camerino, where she acquired spe-
cialist knowledge in vegetation dynamics and established 
permanent cooperation with colleagues there. The acquired 

knowledge and lasting love for the island of her ancestors 
prompted her to dedicate her doctoral thesis to research 
into changes in the vegetation cover of the island of Molat 
during the last hundred years caused mainly by depopula-
tion. She also started to study the flora of the island, and 
with her friend and colleagues she began research into the 
island’s entomofauna and its connection with the vegeta-
tion. At the same time, she was involved in floristic research 
into the island of Mljet, the Krka National Park and Mt 
Žumberak. In the Krka National Park, in addition to floris-
tic research, she also researched vegetation dynamics, the 
impact of grazing and controlled fires on the restoration of 
grassland vegetation. In 2016, Zorana moved from the po-
sition of senior assistant at the Faculty to the position of 
curator at the Croatian Museum of Natural History. She 
became involved in the work on the herbarium collection, 
especially in its digitization, but she also worked on a num-
ber of other museum projects. She collected material for 
exhibitions, was engaged in education, participated in bo-
tanical field research with colleagues from the Museum, but 
at the same time went on with research and cooperation 
with colleagues from the Faculty. She published the results 
of her research in a number of scientific and professional 
articles and studies, as well as conference papers. Since Zor-
ana’s career was abruptly interrupted by a serious illness 
during the first half of it, it would be inappropriate here to 
give any summary of her work. So much more was planned, 
started, conceived, desired and imagined. She coped brave-
ly with her illness, not showing any signs that something 
might be wrong, so that even her closest associates had no 
idea how severe her illness was. As I said at the beginning, 
she belonged to the bright and smiling side, persisting 
bravely and modestly until the very end. For all of us, Zor-
ana will remain a person with a smile, someone who never 
had a single bad word to say. 

Professor Antun Alegro
University of Zagreb
Faculty of Science
Department of Biology

Fig. 1 Zorana in field research near Barać caves in spring 2020. 
Foto by Sara Essert.