Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (13 November 1773 – 14 March 1826) 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 ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

. Born at the family seat (since 1718),Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria: Biography: Leschenault de la Tour, Jean B.C.T. (1773 - 1826).
/ref> Le Villard, near

Chalon-sur-Saône Chalon-sur-Saône (, literally ''Chalon on Saône'') is a city in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefectu ...

, Leschenault de la Tour arrived in Paris after the death of his father, a judge at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. Leschenault de La Tour was chief botanist on

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 175416 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. He carried a few corms of Gros Michel banana ...

's expedition to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

between 1800 and 1803. He collected a great many new specimens in 1801 and 1802, though Baudin's journal suggests that he did not work particularly hard; apparently the poorly educated gardener's boy

Antoine Guichenot Antoine Guichenot or Guichenault (1783–1867) was "gardener's boy" on the 1801—1804 French scientific voyage to Australia under Nicolas Baudin, and the 1817 voyage under Louis de Freycinet. Very little is known about him, but the records of Bau ...

collected more plant specimens than Leschenault did, and gave them more useful labels. In April 1803 he was so ill that he had to be put ashore at

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

. Forced to spend the next three years on

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 ...

he used the time to make the first thorough botanical investigation of the island, which had not previously been visited by naturalists except briefly by

Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Sweden, Swedish Natural history, naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus ...

. He arrived back in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in July 1807 with a large collection of

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s and

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. Leschenault's Javanese birds were described by

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

. Following the Napoleonic Wars, in May 1816 Leschenault travelled to

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 ...

to collect plants and establish a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

Pondicherry Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...

. He was given permission by the British to travel through

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

and

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. He sent many of the plants and seeds he discovered to the French island of

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 ...

to be cultivated. These included two varieties of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

and six varieties of

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

. He returned to France in 1822 and was awarded the

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

. Less than a year after his return Leschenault travelled to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, visiting

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, Surinam and

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, and introducing

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

bushes to

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Caye ...

, the capital of the French colony. He was forced to return home after only eighteen months due to ill health. Though Leschenault published little, his collections were subsequently used by other French botanists, including

Aimé Bonpland Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French List of explorers, explorer and botany, botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scie ...

René Louiche Desfontaines René Louiche Desfontaines (14 February 1750 – 16 November 1833) was a French botanist. Desfontaines was born near Tremblay, Ille-et-Vilaine, Tremblay in Brittany. He attended the Collège de Rennes and in 1773 went to Paris to study medici ...

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an e ...

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

and

Étienne Pierre Ventenat Étienne Pierre Ventenat (1 March 1757 – 13 August 1808) was a French botanist born in Limoges. He was the brother of naturalist Louis Ventenat (1765–1794). While employed as director of the ecclesiastic library Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, ...

Legacy

A number of

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

were named after Leschenault, including

greater sand plover The greater sand plover (''Anarhynchus leschenaultii'') is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is often given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official IOC and British Ornithologists' Union spelling ...

(''Charadrius leschenaultii'' ),

white-crowned forktail The white-crowned forktail (''Enicurus leschenaulti'') is a species of forktail in the family Muscicapidae. Formally described in 1818, it has five subspecies, each occupying a different geographic range. The largest of the forktails, ''Enicurus ...

(''Enicurus leschenaulti ''), sirkeer malkoha (''Phaenicophaeus leschenaultii'' ) and chestnut-headed bee-eater (''Merops leschenaulti''). Three

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

lizard Lizard is the common name used for all Squamata, squamate reptiles other than snakes (and to a lesser extent amphisbaenians), encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most Island#Oceanic isla ...

s were named after him: '' Cryptoblepharus leschenault'', '' Hemidactylus leschenaultii'', and ''

Ophisops leschenaultii ''Ophisops leschenaultii'', Common name, commonly called Leschenault's snake-eye, Leschenault’s lacerta, and Leschenault's cabrita, is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Lacertidae. The species is native to India and eastern Sr ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Leschenault", p. 156). The plant genus '' Lechenaultia'' is also named after him, as well as several Western Australian geographical features including the

Leschenault Estuary Leschenault Estuary is an estuarine lagoon that lies to the north of Bunbury, Western Australia. It had in the past met the Indian Ocean at the Leschenault Inlet, but that has been altered by harbour works for Bunbury, and the creation of The Cu ...

, the suburb of Leschenault, and

Lake Leschenaultia Lake Leschenaultia, Western Australia is a former railway dam that is now a recreational lake in the Shire of Mundaring just north of the location of an important railway stopping place on the original Eastern Railway. The dam holds approxima ...

Legacy

References

Further reading

See also