ARTUR COMAN - BOTANIST MARAMUREȘEAN DE ANVERGURĂ EUROPEANĂ.

Artur Coman is one of the most important scientific personalities of Maramureș region, with national and international notoriety. He dedicated whole life studying the flora, especially from Rodnei and Maramureșului Mountains. Identifying taxa of phytogeographical and phyto-historical value, the great botanist contributed to: „Flora Romaniae Exsiccata” and „Flora R.S. Romania”. Remarkable is the manuscript: "Flora Maramureşului", where he noticed: „ . . . a tendency of movement of termophilic plants from the hilly region into the mountainous region, of mezoterm plants from forest to alpine zone etc., with often spectacular mutations . . . ”, thus „ . . . 3-4 decades ago, on peak Pietrosul, at over 2220 m altitude, I could not found more than 22-24 species, while currently their number is close to 50”. Thus Artur Coman recorded and demonstrated the global worming phenomenon 80 years ago, when that notion was not even launched, which is why he deserves (among other scientific contributions) the title of Honorary Member of Romanian Academy and a proposal for Nobel Prize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]