Department of Plant and Fungal Diversity and Resources

• Taxonomy and evolution of plants, species content, structure and history of the flora and plant communities, species and habitats with conservation status

• Taxonomy of fungi, species with economic value; fungi as natural resource; protection of fungi; fungi as bio-indicators of pollution; fungal secondary metabolites as therapeutic agents

• Fundamental and applied research in the field of floristic and plant diversity in Bulgaria, their dynamics, evolution, conservation and sustainable management

• Monitoring of plants, fungi and habitats; mapping and assessment of plant and fungal populations, habitats and ecosystems and their services

• Diversity and monitoring of important rare medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs); assessment of resources of economically valuable MAPs;

• Biologically active substances, monitoring, ex situ conservation through seed banking; in vitro reproduction, analysis of biologically active substances in samples of MAPs in natural habitats, cultivated areas, in vitro cultures and ex vitro adapted plants; determining the biological activity of plant extracts

• Studying the evolutionary mechanisms of Bulgarian plant genofund since the Tertiary

• Distribution and assessment of the risk of the invasive alien species

• Preparation of strategic documents for floral conservation in Bulgaria

Laboratories and experimental facilities

Scientific collections and Library

• Library (about 26 000 books);
• Herbarium of vascular plants SOM (about 159 200 specimens);
• Mycological collection SOMF (25 600 specimens);
• Collection of plant fossils (about 16 000 specimens), reference palynological collection (about 2 800 species), and cuticle collection (about 2 700 species).

Recent and Current Projects