Maarten Houttuyn or Houttuijn (1720 – 2 May 1798; Latinised as Martinus Houttuyn) was a Dutch

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. Houttuyn was born in

Hoorn Hoorn () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is the largest town an ...

, studied medicine in

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

and moved to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in 1753. He published many books on natural history, e.g. ''Natuurlyke Historie of uitvoerige Beschryving der Dieren, Planten en Mineraalen, volgens het Samenstel van den Heer Linnaeus'', in 37 volumes (1761-1773), following Carl Linnaeus' division into the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the mineral kingdom. His areas of interest encompassed Pteridophytes,

Bryophyte Bryophytes () are a group of embryophyte, land plants (embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic Division (taxonomy), division referred to as Bryophyta ''Sensu#Common qualifiers, sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular pla ...

s and

Spermatophyte A seed plant or spermatophyte (; New Latin ''spermat-'' and Greek ' (phytón), plant), also known as a phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or a phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte (i.e. la ...

s. He died in

. In

botanical nomenclature Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; Botany, botanical nomenclature then provides na ...

, the standard author abbreviation ''Houtt.'' is applied to plants described by him. He is commemorated by the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Houttuynia'', a member of the Saururaceae from China and Japan. Martinus Houttuyn was the co-writer of the volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 of '' Nederlandsche Vogelen''.His name appears on the title pages o
vol 2

an

of ''Nederlandsche Vogelen''. The first author was Cornelius Nozeman.

References

External links

'Houtkunde' – A representation of inland and foreign wood by Martinus Houttuyn, 1773

ipni.org The International Plant Names Index
* M. Boeseman, W. de Ligny, Martinus Houttuyn (1720–1798) and his contributions to the natural sciences, with emphasis on zoology, Zoologische Verhandelingen 349, 2004, p. 1-22
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1720 births 1798 deaths 18th-century Dutch botanists 18th-century Dutch naturalists Dutch entomologists People from Hoorn Leiden University alumni 18th-century Danish zoologists {{Netherlands-botanist-stub