Our research encompasses a broad range of biogeographical subjects ranging from plant distributions and their geographical relationships with the environment to processes determining generation and spatial assembly of plant diversity. This includes aspects of evolution, ecology, and systematics as well as human-environment relations. Sound knowledge of basic principles of plant diversity on multiple levels, conceptual and methodological rigor in its study as well as a deep interest in plants motivate our teaching from the undergraduate to the postgraduate level. 

News & Recent Publications

Hotspots of (sub)alpine plants in the Irano-Anatolian global biodiversity hotspot are insufficiently protected. Diversity and Distributions 29: 244–253

Rote Liste der Farn- und Blütenpflanzen Österreichs. Stapfia 114: 1–357

Checkliste und Rote Liste der Farn- und Blütenpflanzen des Burgenlandes. ⇗

Biodiversity coverage in Austrian National Parks. Acta ZooBot Austria 158: 13–47

First records of Calamagrostis purpurea (Poaceae) in the Carpathians, a relict species new to the flora of Slovakia, Ukraine, and Romania. Biologia 77: 2459–2468

Deep phylogeographic splits but no taxonomic structure in the disjointly distributed Draba pacheri (Brassicaceae), a subendemic of the Eastern Alps. Folia Geobotanica 56: 179–192

Euphrasia ultima, a new locally endemic diploid species from the Ortler/Ortles range (Italy), is a close relative of widespread allotetraploid E. minima. Plant Biosystems 156: 893–907

Endemics determine bioregionalization in the alpine zone of the Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspot (South-West Asia). Alpine Botany 131: 177–186

A long history in a short note—identity and typification of the name Hippion obtusifolium F.W. Schmidt, and synonymy of the species Gentianella obtusifolia (Gentianaceae). Phytotaxa 598: 157–166