Pierre-Antoine Poiteau (23 March 1766 Âmbleny – 27 February 1854) was a French botanist,

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner supplem ...

and botanical artist.

Biography

He was born in Ambleny,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. After having worked in kitchen gardens and for the Parisian market gardeners, he was appointed by

André Thouin André Thouin (10 February 1747 – 24 October 1824) was a French botanist. Thouin studied botany under Bernard de Jussieu, and in 1793 attained the chair of horticulture at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. He was a good ...

(1746-1824) ''garçon jardinier'' in 1790 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 ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

. There he studied the

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

' ''Systema vegetabilium'' and the art of painting with the artist of the museum Gérard van Spaendonck (1746-1822) but his main influence is Redouté (1759-1840). Thouin named him, two years later, head of the Botanical school of Paris, but in 1793, Daubenton chose him to establish a botanic school and garden in Bergerac. This project failed and in 1796 Thouin offered Poiteau to go to

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

. He was arrested as soon as he landed because he did not have official papers to justify his presence. Soon afterwards he was in Haiti, at the head of the new botanical garden of Cape. Receiving no wages, he had to join the administration as an assistant to Hédouville and Roume, the governors of the island. In 1802, he brought back to France six hundred packets of seeds and 1,200 species, all named and classified by him. Among them were 97 species of mushrooms and 30 species of lichens. He published, in Paris in 1808 with

Pierre Jean François Turpin Pierre Jean François Turpin (11 March 1775, Vire – 1 May 1840) was a French botanist and illustrator. He is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators during the Napoleonic Era and afterwards. As an artist, Turpin was la ...

(1775-1840) whom he met in Haiti, ''Flora Parisiensis secundum systema sexuale deposita et plantarum circa Lutetiam sponte nascentium descriptiones, icones....'' After some years of free literary activities, he was appointed in 1815 head of the Royal tree nursery of

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, ...

. In 1816, he published a description of the plants cultivated in the botanical garden of the School of medicine of Paris. Two years later, with

Antoine Risso Giuseppe Antonio Risso (8 April 1777 – 25 August 1845), called Antoine Risso, was a Niçard and natural history, naturalist. Risso was born in the city of Nice in the Duchy of Savoy, and studied under Giovanni Battista Balbis. He published ' (1 ...

(1777-1845), he published ''Histoire naturelle des orangers'' (Natural history of the orange trees). In 1818, Poiteau went to

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

where he supervised the cultures of the plantations of the royal houses. Back in France in 1822, he was appointed head gardener of the castle of Fontainebleau. From 1829 to 1851 he directed the ''Revue horticole'' (Horticultural review). In 1835, with Pierre-Jean-François Turpin, he published a new edition of the ''Traité des arbres fruitiers'' (Treatise of the fruit trees) by

Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (20 July 1700, Paris13 August 1782, Paris), was a French physician, naval engineer and botanist. Biography Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau was born in Paris in 1700, the son of Alexandre Duhamel, lord of Denain ...

(1700-1782) and, in 1846, ''Pomologie française. Recueil des plus beaux fruits cultivés en France...'' (French pomology). In 1848 and 1853 the two volumes of his ''Cours d'horticulture'' (Lessons of horticulture) were published. A member of many scientific societies, Poiteau later became head of the museum of natural history, to which he offered all the animals and plants he had brought back from Guiana. Poiteau discovered numerous species of plants and animals, he even created some families (''cyclanthae'', for example). As a gardener and a pomologist, he much contributed to the amelioration of the edible fruits. As an artist, he is appreciated and his colored lithographs are sought-after by amateurs. On this ground, he is often compared to

Pierre-Joseph Redouté Pierre-Joseph Redouté (, 10 July 1759 – 19 June 1840), was a painter and botanist from Belgium, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at the Château de Malmaison, many of which were published as large, coloured ...

. He died in

Bibliography

On WorldCat

External links

References

Species named for Poiteau at IPNI
* Plantes équinoxiales recueillies...etc. by A.von Humboldt, A. Bonpland, A Poiteau, P J F Turpin and F. Schoel
at Botanicus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poiteau, Pierre Antoine 19th-century French botanists Botanists with author abbreviations Botanical illustrators Botanists active in the Caribbean 1766 births 1854 deaths 18th-century French botanists