Clodomir Antony Vincent Houard (1873–1943) was a French botanist and entomologist whose chief interest was plant galls. He was Professor of Botany at the
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
in 1940, and was the author of some 95 works on cecidology in 230 publications in 3 languages.
Houard's interest in galls developed while he was studying in Paris. After assisting in a botanical laboratory, he was appointed as Inspector of
Phytopathology
Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...
and adjunct professor in
Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Botanical Garden in Strasbourg. Despite retiring from this last position in 1934 he stayed on until Germany's
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
occupation of
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
in 1940 made it prudent to leave.
He travelled widely in Europe and North America, studying and gathering galls in herbaria and in nature, building up an extensive collection which is housed at the
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
in Paris. He published a series of 6 seminal books between 1908 and 1940 on gall structure, another on the galls of North America not seeing publication because of the manuscript's being lost during the
occupation
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
of Strasbourg.
Selected works
''Les Zoocécidies des Plantes d'Afrique, d'Asie et d'Océanie'' (1922)
*''Les zoocécidies des plantes d'Europe et du bassin de la Méditerranée''
*''Les zoocécidies des plantes de l'Amérique sud et de l'Amérique centrale''
*''Catalogue sytématique des zoocécidies de l'Europe et du bassin méditerranéen''
*''Recherches anatomiques sur les galles de tiges''
*''Les zoocécidies des plantes de l'Amérique du Nord''