Pierre Étienne Simon Duchartre (27 October 1811,

Portiragnes Portiragnes (; ) is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Geography Climate Portiragnes has a mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification ''Csa''). The average annual temperature in Portira ...

– 5 November 1894,

Meudon Meudon () is a French Communes of France, commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, on the left bank of the Seine. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of P ...

) was a French

botanist 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 ...

. He studied

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, where after graduation he worked as a teacher. In 1836 he edited and published the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

''Flore Pyrénéenne''. From 1837 he taught classes in

Fumel Fumel (; ) is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France. Situated at the right bank of the river Lot, it is the centre of a small agglomeration (population 13,028 in 2017) which consists of 7 communes, including Monsem ...

, several years later moving to Paris, where in 1848 he was accepted by the faculty of sciences. During the following year, he was appointed a professor of botany and

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tr ...

at the Institut agronomique in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

. In 1861 he attained the chair of botany at the Sorbonne. In 1854 he was co-founder of the

Société Botanique de France The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its di ...

, an institution in which he served as president on several separate occasions. In 1850 he experimented with

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

as a remedy against

powdery mildew Powdery mildew is a fungus, fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of Ascomycota, ascomycete fungi in the order Erysiphales. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant disea ...

, a fungus that had a serious negative impact on European grapes during the mid-19th century. The genus ''Duchartrea'' (family

Gesneriaceae Gesneriaceae, the gesneriad family, is a family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of about 152 genera and ca. 3,540 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World (almost all Didymocarpoideae) and the New World (most Ges ...

) was named in his honor by botanist

Joseph Decaisne Joseph Decaisne (7 March 1807 – 8 January 1882) was a French botanist and agronomist. He became an ''aide-naturaliste'' to Adrien-Henri de Jussieu (1797–1853), who served as the chair of rural botany. It was during this time that he began to ...

. He is the binomial author of many species from the botanical family

Aristolochiaceae The Aristolochiaceae () are a family, the birthwort family, of flowering plants with seven genera and about 400 known species belonging to the order Piperales. The type genus is '' Aristolochia'' L. Description They are mostly perennial, her ...

Principal works

* ''Observations anatomiques et organogéniques sur la clandestine d'Europe (Lathraea clandestina, L.)'', 1847 - Anatomic and organogenic observations of Lathraea clandestina. * ''Famille des Aristolochiées'', 1854 -

. * ''Éléments de botanique : comprenant l'anatomie, l'organographie, la physiologie des plantes, les familles naturelles et la géographie botanique'', 1867 - Elements of botany, etc. * ''Rapport sur les progrés de la botanique physiologique'', 1868 - Report involving progress in plant physiology. * ''Observations sur les bulbes des lis'', 1873 - Observations involving

lily ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...

bulbs.Open Library
Famille des Aristolochiées

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchartre, Pierre Etienne Simon 1811 births 1894 deaths People from Hérault 19th-century French botanists Plant physiologists