Louis Claude Marie Richard (19 September 1754 – 6 June 1821) 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 botanical illustrator.

Richard was born at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

. Between 1781 and 1789 he collected botanical specimens in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. On his return he became a professor at the École de médecine in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. His books included ''Demonstrations botaniques'' (1808), ''De Orchideis europaeis'' (1817), ''Commentatio botanica de Conifereis et Cycadeis'' (1826) and ''De Musaceis commentatio botanica'' (1831). He gave us the special description terminology for the orchids, such as

pollinium A pollinium (plural pollinia) is a coherent mass of pollen grains in a plant that are the product of only one anther, but are transferred, during pollination, as a single unit. This is regularly seen in plants such as orchids and many species of mil ...

and

gynostemium The column, or technically the gynostemium, is a reproductive structure that can be found in several plant families: Aristolochiaceae, Orchidaceae, and Stylidiaceae. It is derived from the fusion of both male and female parts ( stamens and pist ...

. The genus ''Richardia''

Kunth Carl Sigismund Kunth (18 June 1788 – 22 March 1850), also Karl Sigismund Kunth or anglicized as Charles Sigismund Kunth, was a German botanist. He is known for being one of the first to study and categorise plants from the American continents, ...

, (

Araceae The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). Also ...

) was named in his honor. It is now a synonym of the genus ''

Zantedeschia ''Zantedeschia'' is a genus of eight species of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. The genus has been introduced on all continents except Antarctica. Com ...

'' . This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Rich. when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Intern ...

. His son was another notable botanist,

Achille Richard Achille Richard was a French botanist, botanical illustrator and physician (27 April 1794 in Paris – 5 October 1852). Biography Achille was the son of the botanist Louis-Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821). He was a pharmacist in the Frenc ...

. He also discovered

Morgat Crozon (, ; br, Kraozon, , ) is a commune in the department of Finistère and the administrative region of Brittany, northwestern France. As well as the town of Crozon, the village of Morgat is part of the commune. Crozon is located on the Cro ...

in the 1880s.

Eponyms

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of Caribbean lizard, ''

Anolis richardii ''Anolis richardii'', commonly known as the Grenada tree anole or Richard's anole, is a species of anole lizard in the family Dactyloidae. The species is found in the Caribbean. Etymology The specific name, ''richardii'', is in honor of Fren ...

'', is named in honor of Louis Claude Richard. A species of Caribbean snake, '' Typhlops richardii'', is named in honor of either Louis Claude Richard or his son Achille Richard.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Richard, A. and L.C.M.", p. 220).

Note

: Other botanists called Richard are: *

(1794–1852), his son (A.Rich.) *

Jean Michel Claude Richard Jean Michel Claude Richard (16 August 1787 – 1868) was a noted French botanist and plant collector active in Senegal, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Réunion, and a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. Richard was born in Volon, Haute-Saône. He was ...

(1787–1868) (J.M.C.Rich.) * Olivier Jules Richard (1836–1896) (O.J.Rich.) * Claude Richard fl. (C.Rich) * Joseph Herve Pierre Richard (J.H.P.Rich.)

Eponyms

Note

References

Further reading