Benjamin Balansa
Gaspard Joseph Benedict Balansa, also known as Benjamin Balansa or Benedict Balansa (25 March 1825 – 2 November 1891), 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 ...
.
Born in
Narbonne
Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...
in 1825, Balansa made numerous collecting trips for the
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...
in Paris which holds most of his
plant specimens. Others are in
Muséum de Toulouse
The Muséum de Toulouse (, MHNT) is a museum of natural history in Toulouse, France. It is located in the Busca-Montplaisir neighborhood of the city, houses a collection of more than 2.5 million items, and has some of exhibition space. I ...
.
His first journey, from 1847 to 1848, was to
Algiers
Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
and
Mostaganem
Mostaganem () is a port city in and capital of Mostaganem (province), Mostaganem province, in the northwest of Algeria. The city, founded in the 11th century lies on the Gulf of Arzew, Mediterranean Sea and is 72 km ENE of Oran. It is consi ...
in Algeria.
From 1850 to 1853, Balansa returned to Algeria, collecting plants again in Mostaganem and later in
Oran
Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...
,
Muaskar
Mascara (), also spelled Maskara, is the capital city of Mascara Province. It has 150,000 inhabitants (2008 estimate). It was founded in the 10th century by the Banu Ifran, a Berber tribe, and was the capital city of Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri, Emir ...
, the Northern
Sahara
The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...
,
Biskra
Biskra () is the capital city of Biskra Province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 307,987. Biskra is located in northeastern Algeria, about from Algiers, southwest of Batna, Algeria, Batna and north of Touggourt. It is nickna ...
and
Batna.
From 1854 to 1855 he undertook his first trip to Asia travelling first to
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...
and the surrounding regions in April and May, 1854. From March until October 1855 he lived in
Mersin
Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...
and the Taurus Mountains of
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
. The following year, he travelled from June until September 1856 from
Tarsus to
Kayseri
Kayseri () is a large List of cities in Turkey, city in Central Anatolia, Turkey, and the capital of Kayseri Province, Kayseri province. Historically known as Caesarea (Mazaca), Caesarea, it has been the historical capital of Cappadocia since anc ...
in Cappadocia. In 1857 he settled with his family in Smyrna. From May until July 1857 he explored
Uşak
Uşak () is a city in the interior part of the Aegean Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Uşak Province and Uşak District.[Phrygia
In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River.
Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...]
and
Cilicia
Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...
. In 1866, he made a trip to
Lazistan
Lazistan or Lazeti (; ka, ლაზეთი, Lazeti, or ჭანეთი ''Ç'aneti''; ) is a historical and cultural region of the Caucasus and Anatolia; the term was primarily used during Ottoman rule in the region. Traditionally inhabited b ...
and the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
, where he collected from June to August in the area of
Trabzon
Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...
and
Rize
Rize (; ; ; ka, რიზე}; ) is a coastal city in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Rize Province and Rize District.[Mogador
Essaouira ( ; ), known until the 1960s as Mogador (, or ), is a port city in the western Morocco, Moroccan region of Marrakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It has 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014.
The foundation of the city of Essao ...]
, the
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. They separate the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range, which stretches around through M ...
and
Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...
.
From 1868 to 1872 Balansa stayed overseas in
New Caledonia
New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...
and the
Loyalty Islands
Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre.
...
. During this time he was Director of the Jardin d'Acclimatation in
Nouméa
Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French Sui generis collectivity, special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest Francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main i ...
. From 1873 to 1877, he made his first trip to Paraguay, followed by a second from 1878 to 1884. In the years from 1885 to 1889, he collected in
Tonkin
Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the ...
and undertook a trip to the island of
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
. In his (1890) second stay at Balansa died in Hanoi.
Balansa edited and distributed several
exsiccatae and exsiccata-like specimens series, among them ''Plantes d'Algérie 1851'' and ''Plantes d'Orient 1854''.
See also
* for pages named for Balansa
Notes
References
*Gaston Astre, 1947. ''La Vie de Benjamin Balansa, botaniste explorateur''. Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Toulouse.
*
Asuman Baytop
Asuman Baytop (27 March 1920 – 18 February 2015) was a Turkish botanist, plant collector, pharmacologist, and educator known for her research regarding the medicinal properties of the flora of Turkey. In 1964, she founded the Department of Ph ...
, Michele Nicolas,2006. ''Ondokuzuncu yüzyılda Anadolu’da bir bitki toplayıcısı: Benjamin Balansa (1825–1891). In: Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları''. Band 8, Nummer 1, 2006, S. 105–112 (Pdf).
*A. Chevalier, 1942. L’oeuvre d’un grand botaniste colonial méconnu: Benjamin Balansa. In: ''Revue de Botanique appliquée et d’Agronomie tropicale''. Band 22, 1942, S. 241–251.
*A. Guillaumin, 1911. Histoire des explorations botaniques en Nouvelle-Calédonie et aux îles Loyalty. In: ''Annales du Musée colonial de Marseille''. 2. Folge, Band 19, 1911, S. 291–299 (online).
*Philippe Morat, 2005. Les Botanistes récolteurs en Nouvelle-Calédonie de 1774 à 2005. In: ''Adansonia''. Band 32, Nummer 2, 2010, S. 159–216 (doi:10.5252/a2010n2a1).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balansa, Benedict
19th-century French botanists
1825 births
1891 deaths
People from Narbonne