Jean Baptiste Louis Pierre (23 October 1833 – 30 October 1905), also known as J. B. Louis Pierre, 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 ...

known for his

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n studies.

Early life

Pierre was born in Saint-André,

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

, and studied 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 ...

before working in the botanical gardens of

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Career

In 1864 he founded the

Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens (, ), or known locally as The Zoo ("Sở Thú"), is Vietnam's largest zoo and botanical garden. The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens was commissioned by Admiral Pierre-Paul de La Grandière in 1864, and was ...

, which he directed until 1877. Afterward, he returned to Paris and lived at 63 rue Monge, near the Paris Herbarium. In 1883, he moved to Charenton, then to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, then (circa 1893) to Saint-Mandé. Finally, he settled at 18 rue Cuvier in Paris, where he resided until his death. Pierre made many scientific explorations in tropical Asia. His publications include the ''Flore forestière de la Cochinchine'' (1880-1907), an article "Sur les plantes à caoutchouc de l'Indochine" (''Revue des cultures coloniales'', 1903) and the section on

Sapotaceae 240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India The Sapotaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology)">order Ericales">family (biology)">family of flowering plants belonging to th ...

in the ''Notes botaniques'' (1890-1891). Several genera have been named in Pierre's honor: in 1907,

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

(1844-1930) named ''

Pierreodendron ''Pierreodendron'' is a genus of plants in the family Simaroubaceae. Its native range is western tropical Africa and is found in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo and Zaïre. It was first publishe ...

'' of the family

Simaroubaceae The Simaroubaceae, also known as the quassia family, are a small, mostly tropical, family in the order Sapindales. In recent decades, it has been subject to much taxonomic debate, with several small families being split off. A molecular phyloge ...

, and in 1909, '' Pierrina'' of the family

Scytopetalaceae The Lecythidaceae ( ) comprise a family (biology), family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia. Well known members of the family include th ...

. in 1912, Gustave Henri Bonati (1873-1927) named '' Pierranthus'' of the family

Linderniaceae Linderniaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales, which consists of about 25 genus, genera and 265 species occurring worldwide. It is commonly known as the false-pimpernel family. ''Vandellia micrantha'' is ea ...

, and in 1891,

Henry Fletcher Hance Henry Fletcher Hance (4 August 1827 – 22 June 1886) was a British diplomat who devoted his spare time to the study of Chinese plants. Born in Brompton, London, his first appointment was to Hong Kong in 1844. In May 1852 in Exeter he married hi ...

(1827-1886) named ''Pierrea'' of the family

Flacourtiaceae The Flacourtiaceae is a defunct family of flowering plants whose former members have been scattered to various families, mostly to the Achariaceae and Salicaceae. It was so vaguely defined that hardly anything seemed out of place there and it bec ...

(now listed as a synonym of ''

Hopea ''Hopea'' is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It contains some 113 species, distributed from Sri Lanka and southern India to the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, southern China, and southward throughout Malesia to New Guinea. They are ...

'' Roxb.). In 1933, a bust in his honor was dedicated in the

References

Other sources

* F. J. Breteler, "Novitates Gabonenses 55. Manuscript names and drawings of the French botanist Louis Pierre (1833-1905): a discussion about their validity with some examples of nomenclatural consequences for the Gabonese flora in particular", Herbarium Vadense, Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen (Netherlands)

* Umberto Quattrocchi (2000). ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'', CRC Press : 2896 p. . * A. Chevalier, "J.B.-Louis Pierre, 1833-1905, botaniste français", ''Agric. pratiq. Pays Chauds'': 1-15, 1906. * F. Gagnepain, "J.-B.-Louis Pierre (1833-1905). Notice nécrologique", ''Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris'', sér. 4, 8: xix-xxxi, 1906. * F. Gagnepain, "Notice biographique sur J.-B.-Louis Pierre", ''Bull. Soc. bot. France'' 53: 54–59, 1906. * ''Bulletin de la Société des études indo-chinoises de Saigon'', v.13, page 179, 1939. * ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'', v.59, page 348, 1962. * ''Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises'', pages 184–185, 1974. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Jean Baptiste Louis 19th-century French botanists 1833 births 1905 deaths