Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (13 November 1773 – 14 March 1826) was a French

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. Born at the family seat (since 1718),Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria: Biography: Leschenault de la Tour, Jean B.C.T. (1773 - 1826).
/ref> Le Villard, near

Chalon-sur-Saône Chalon-sur-Saône (, literally ''Chalon on Saône'') is a city in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the largest city in the department; h ...

, Leschenault de la Tour arrived in Paris after the death of his father, a judge at Lyon. Leschenault de La Tour was chief botanist on Nicolas Baudin's expedition to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

between 1800 and 1803. He collected a great many new specimens in 1801 and 1802, though Baudin's journal suggests that he did not work particularly hard; apparently the poorly educated gardener's boy

Antoine Guichenot Antoine Guichenot or Guichenault (1783–1867) was "gardener's boy" on the 1801—1804 French scientific voyage to Australia under Nicolas Baudin, and the 1817 voyage under Louis de Freycinet. Very little is known about him, but the records of Baud ...

collected more plant specimens than Leschenault did, and gave them more useful labels. In April 1803 he was so ill that he had to be put ashore at Timor. Forced to spend the next three years on Java he used the time to make the first thorough botanical investigation of the island, which had not previously been visited by naturalists except briefly by

Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Swedish naturalist and an "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus. After studying under Linnaeus at Uppsala Un ...

. He arrived back in France in July 1807 with a large collection of plants and birds. Leschenault's Javanese birds were described by

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...

. Following the Napoleonic Wars, in May 1816 Leschenault travelled to India to collect plants and establish a botanical garden at Pondicherry. He was given permission by the British to travel through

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, Bengal and

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. He sent many of the plants and seeds he discovered to the French island of

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

to be cultivated. These included two varieties of sugar cane and six varieties of cotton. He returned to France in 1822 and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur. Less than a year after his return Leschenault travelled to South America, visiting Brazil,

Surinam Surinam may refer to: * Surinam (Dutch colony) (1667–1954), Dutch plantation colony in Guiana, South America * Surinam (English colony) (1650–1667), English short-lived colony in South America * Surinam, alternative spelling for Suriname ...

and French Guiana, and introducing tea bushes to

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...

, the capital of the French colony. He was forced to return home after only eighteen months due to ill health. Though Leschenault published little, his collections were subsequently used by other French botanists, including Aimé Bonpland, René Louiche Desfontaines,

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an e ...

, Jacques Labillardière and Étienne Pierre Ventenat. A number of

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

were named after Leschenault, including greater sand plover (''Charadrius leschenaultii'' ), white-crowned forktail (''Enicurus leschenaulti ''), sirkeer malkoha (''Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii'' ) and

chestnut-headed bee-eater The chestnut-headed bee-eater (''Merops leschenaulti''), or bay-headed bee-eater, is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging from India east to ...

(''Merops leschenaulti''). Three species of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s were named after him: ''

Cryptoblepharus leschenault ''Cryptoblepharus leschenault'' is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Indonesia. Etymology The specific name, ''leschenault'', is in honor of French biologist Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour, who collec ...

'', ''

Hemidactylus leschenaultii Leschenault's leaf-toed gecko (''Hemidactylus leschenaultii'') is a species of gecko, a lizard in the family Gekkonidae. The species is endemic to South Asia and parts of West Asia. It is often found inside homes. Its scientific name commemorates ...

'', and ''

Ophisops leschenaultii ''Ophisops leschenaultii'', commonly called Leschenault's snake-eye, Leschenault’s lacerta, or Leschenault's cabrita, is a species of lacertid lizard endemic to India and eastern Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, this lizard is called in Sinhala. ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Leschenault", p. 156). The plant genus '' Lechenaultia'' is also named after him.

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See also