Édouard Placide Duchassaing de Fontbressin (c. 1819 in Moule,

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

– 1873 in

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; or ) is a commune in the Dordogne department, in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux is the prefecture of Dordogne, and the capital city of Périgord. It is also the seat of ...

) was a French

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. He is noted for his work in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and spongiology. A native of Guadeloupe, he studied

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

and medicine in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Afterwards, he returned to Guadeloupe as a physician, spending his free time conducting research of the island's flora. Subsequently, he visited several other islands of the

Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...

, eventually relocating as a physician to

Santa Marta, Panama Santa Marta is a Corregimientos of Panama, corregimiento in Bugaba District, Chiriquí Province, Panama. It has a land area of and had a population of 3,679 as of 2010, giving it a population density of . Its population as of 1990 was 2,940; its ...

(1848), from where he studied the natural history of the isthmus, sending his plant specimens to

Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (26 December 1816 in Mühlhausen – 18 June 1853 in Berlin) was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing a botanical name. He received his education at the Universities of Greif ...

, a botanist in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

(these specimens later became the property of

August Grisebach August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach (; 17 April 18149 May 1879) was a German botanist and phytogeographer. Biography Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the cloister-school at Ilfeld, and the University of Göttingen. He graduated in me ...

).JSTOR Global Plants
biography Around 1850, he obtained a medical degree at

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, then settled in Saint Thomas of the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies () or Danish Virgin Islands () or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with , Saint John () with , Saint Croix with , and Water Island. The islands of St ...

. He remained in Saint Thomas for 15 years, during which time he performed extensive research of sponges and

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

, collecting and describing a large number of species with Giovanni Michelotti (1812-1898). From 1867 onward, he lived in the Périgord region of France. The plant genus ''Duchassaingia'' (synonym ''

Erythrina ''Erythrina'' is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to in height. These species ...

'', family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

) was named in his honor by Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers.

Selected publications

* ''Mémoire sur les coralliaires des Antilles'', 1860 (with Giovanni Michelotti). * ''Spongiaires de la Mer Caraibe'', 1864 (with Giovanni Michelotti). * ''Revue des zoophytes et des spongiaires des Antilles'', 1870.WorldCat Search
(publications)

References

External links

IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Duchassaing de Fontbressin. 1810s births 1873 deaths People from the French West Indies People from Le Moule French naturalists 19th-century French botanists Spongiologists {{Guadeloupe-bio-stub