Commemorative Plaque to Gustav Adolf Říčan in Huslenky

19.–20. century, 2007 

The plaque to Gustav Adolf Říčan (1867–1939) commemorates the birthplace of this evangelical priest and botanist in Huslenky. Říčan did intensive research of the flora of the Moravian Carpathians and Valašsko, and his data on Valašsko`s flora are still one of the most important sources of knowledge about the botany of this region.

 

Gustav Adolf Říčan served as vicar in Hovězí, today`s Huslenky from 1894 and as the first parish priest from 1896. With a short interruption of two years (1902-1904), which he spent working in Hradec Králové, Říčan was the pastor of the congregation of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Huslenky until his retirement in 1933. He was charmed by the Valašsko landscape and devoted almost all his free time to its exploration. In his natural science work he built on the research of his predecessors, especially the Brno professor Eduard Formánek, the Vsetín botanist Jan Bubela and the Rajnochovice Catholic clergyman František Gogela. Initially, he focused on entomology and geology and created an extensive collection of beetles, butterflies and rocks. At the same time, he devoted himself to botany, which eventually dominated his natural history research. Since the mid-1920s Říčan intensively explored the Moravian Carpathians and Valašsko. During his botanizing, he not only recorded the names of plants, but also collected and dried them and compiled several herbaria. In this period, he also began to publish his first botanical works, which are initially phytogeographical: they describe the occurrence and distribution of three species: Aremonia agrimonoides, Dwarf thistle (Cirsium acaule) and mountain cornflower (Centaurea montana mollis). His later works have a phytocoenological character (Orchid meadows near Vsetín in the Moravian Carpathians, 1928 and Pastures of the Vsetín district in the Moravian Carpathians, 1932). In them he concentrated on the study of vegetation, especially scythe-mown meadows and pastures. Říčan collected the results of his lifelong natural history research in Valašsko in his 1936 work Flowers of the Vsetín and Valašské Meziříší districts. This work is still an essential source of knowledge of the local flora. Gustav Adolf Říčan died on 6th July 1939 in Vsetín.

 

The memorial plaque commemorating the famous resident of Huslenky, Gustav Adolf Říčan, was mounted on the building of the school Na Bařinách. The plaque was officially unveiled on 14 October 2007 on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the founding of the school.

 

References

Janko, J.: Vědy o životě v českých zemích 1750–1950. Praha 1997.

Pozvánka na 120. výročí založení školy na Bařinách. In: Huslenky. Zpravodaj obce Huslenky. 18/2007. 

Tkáčíková, J.: Moravský botanik Gustav Adolf Říčan. In: Valašsko 2009/1, s. 22–25.

Internetový zdroj:

Gustav Adolf Říčan. In: Osobnosti Valašska. URL: https://www.osobnostivalasska.cz/osobnost/gustav-adolf-rican/ [16.8.2021].

LeO

Show in map