Ivan Ivanovich Lepyokhin (Иван Иванович Лепёхин; 10 September 1740, Saint-Petersburg – 1802, Saint-Petersburg) was a Russian naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

, zoologist, botanist and explorer.

He began his studies in the Academy of Sciences of Saint-Petersburg

Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....

  and gained his doctorate at faculty of medicine of the University of Strasbourg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

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In 1768 he explored the Volga region and the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

. In 1769 he went to the Ural mountains

Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...

 which he explored for five years. In 1774 and 1775 he explored Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

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Ivan Lepekhin was the Secretary of the Russian Academy

Russian Academy

The Russian Academy or Imperial Russian Academy was established in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1783 by Empress Catherine II of Russia and princess Dashkova as a research center for Russian language and Russian literature, following the example of the Académie française...

 since 1783. His extensive journals, revised and completed by Nikolay Ozeretskovsky, were published in 4 hefty volumes between 1771 and 1805.

Lepekhin was in charge of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden

Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden

The Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden, also known as the Botanic Gardens of the Komarov Botanical Institute or the Komarov Botanical Garden, is the oldest botanical garden in Russia, consisting of outdoor and rich indoor collections, which is situated on Aptekarsky Island in Saint Petersburg and...

 from 1774 until his death. In 1804, his name was honoured in the name Lepechinia

Lepechinia

Lepechinia is a genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It includes several species of plants known commonly as pitchersages . Plants of this genus can be found in South America, Mexico, California, and Hawaii. Many of them bear attractive pitcher-shaped flowers, often in shades of purple...

(Lamiaceae) by Carl Ludwig von Willdenow

Carl Ludwig Willdenow

Carl Ludwig Willdenow was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants...