Jean Jules Linden (12 February 1817,Jean Linden, explorer and horticulturist in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
– 12 January 1898, in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
) was a Belgian botanist, explorer, horticulturist and businessman. He specialised in
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...
s, which he wrote a number of books about.
Jean Linden studied at the Athénée Royal in Luxembourg until 1834 and went on to the faculty of science at the Free University of Brussels. In 1835, Jean Linden put forward his name when the Belgian government invited applications from academic circles for an exploration of
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
. As a result, Jean Linden, Nicolas Funck (1816–1896), and Auguste Ghiesbreght (1810–1893) left
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
on 25 September 1835 for
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
and arrived in
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 ...
on 27 December. They remained in Brazil, collecting plants and animals, returning to Belgium in March 1837. As a result of this trip, Linden's lifelong preoccupation with orchids was born.
Six months later, in September 1837, the same trio left
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
and reached
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.yellow fever near
Laguna de Términos
Laguna de Términos is the largest tidal lagoon by volume located entirely on the Gulf of Mexico, as well as one of the most biodiverse. Exchanging water with several rivers and lagoons, the Laguna is part of the most important hydrographic rive ...
.
He went on several expeditions and made a detailed study of orchid growth conditions in their natural habitat. His findings revolutionised the cultivation of orchids under European conditions. Before his research, orchids were being kept at temperatures far greater than their needs, resulting in a high mortality rate. Following Linden's lead, British botanist
John Lindley
John Lindley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidology, orchidologist.
Early years
Born in Old Catton, Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four c ...
also made detailed observations of the habitats where he collected plants.
In Brussels, Linden was briefly the director of the Brussels zoological and botanical garden. He gradually concentrated on orchid culture, using three types of conservatory with temperatures ranging from cool to warm. Under these conditions his orchids thrived. With this success, he created an orchid empire that, at its peak, had branches in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
,
Ghent
Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...
, 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 ...
, winning awards at exhibitions in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
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 ...
, and
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
. He published exceptional books on orchids and orchid-growing.
Linden married Anna Reuter in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
on 13 October 1845. His son
Lucien
Lucien is a male given name. It is the French form of Luciano (disambiguation), Luciano or Latin ''Lucianus'', patronymic of Lucius.
People
Given name
*Lucien, 3rd Prince Murat (1803–1878), French politician and Prince of Pontecorvo
*Lucien ...
eventually took over all his business interests and published books on orchids before and after Jean's death.
He is commemorated in '' Gloxinella lindeniana'' (Regel) Roalson & Boggan (part of the
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 ...
family), ''Iresine lindenii'' now a synonym of ''
Iresine diffusa
''Iresine diffusa'', or Juba's bush, is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae ( ) is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the fo ...
'' f. ''lindenii'' (
Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae ( ) is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, maki ...
), ''
Phalaenopsis lindenii
''Phalaenopsis lindenii'' is a species of plant in the family Orchidaceae, named after Belgian botanist Jean Jules Linden. It is endemic to the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland for ...
'' (
Orchidaceae
Orchids are plants that belong to the family (biology), family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan plants that ...
), and ''
Polyrrhiza lindenii
''Dendrophylax lindenii'', the ghost orchid (a common name also used for ''Epipogium aphyllum'') is a rare perennial epiphyte from the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It is native to Florida and Cuba. Other common names include palm polly and whit ...
'', also in the Orchidaceae family.
This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviationLinden when
citing
A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...
a
botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or cultivar group, Group epithets must conform t ...