La Fuente de Los Sabios - Charles-Joseph Pitard

Charles-Joseph Marie Pitard, name sometimes given as Charles-Joseph Marie Pitard-Briau (30 October 1873 – 29 December 1927) was a French

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

and

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 ...

. In 1899 he obtained his doctorate in natural sciences at the University of Bordeaux, later serving as a professor at the school of medicine in

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

. He conducted botanical and exploratory investigations in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

(1904–06),

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

(1907–10 & 1913) and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

(1911–13). Many of his plant collections were sent to herbaria in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

and

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 ...

.JSTOR Global Plants
Pitard, Charles-Joseph Marie (1873-1927), biographyBHL
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications Pitard edited three

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 ...

-like specimen series issuing plant specimens from his voyages, namely ''Plantae Canarienses'', ''Plantes du Maroc'' and ''Plantes de Tunisie''.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2025 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. He was the taxonomic authority of numerous botanical taxa. About 525 names have been published. Such as ''Aichryson mollii'' Pit., Iles Canaries 189. The genus ''Pitardia'' ( Batt. ex Pit.), now classed as a synonym of '' Nepeta'' , was named in his honor. Then in 2003, Tirveng. published '' Pitardella'', a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from Indo-China, belonging to the family

Rubiaceae Rubiaceae () is a family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with Petiole ( ...

. Also named in his honour, are plants with the specific epithets of ''pitardii'' (about 27) and ''pitardiana'' (about 7). Such as '' Beaumontia pitardii'' , and also '' Poa pitardiana'' .

Published works

* ''Les Iles Canaries. Flore de l'Archipel'' (1908) – The Canary Islands, flora of the archipelago (with Louis Proust, 1878–1959). * ''Contribution à l'étude de la Flore du Maroc'' (1931) – Contribution to the study of Moroccan flora. Pitard also made significant contributions to the "''Flore générale de L'Indo-Chine''" (General flora of Indochina).WorldCat Title
Flore Générale de L'Indo-Chine

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitard, Charles-Joseph Marie 1873 births 1928 deaths 20th-century French botanists French pharmacists University of Bordeaux alumni 19th-century French botanists