Pierre Joseph Garidel (; 1 August 1658 – 6 June 1737) 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 ...

Early life

Pierre-Joseph Garidel was born on 1 August 1658 in Manosque.Christie's: GARIDEL, Pierre Joseph (1658-1737). Histoire des plantes qui naissent aux environs d'Aix, et dans plusieurs autres endroits de la Provence. Aix: Joseph David, 1715.
/ref> His father was Pierre Garidel, a lawyer, and his mother, Louise de Barthelemy.
/ref> He studied medicine at the University of Aix-en-Provence and the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...

Career

He became a professor of botany at the Aix-en-Provence. Together with

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 165628 December 1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. Botanist Charles Plumier was his pupil and accompanied him on his voyages. Li ...

, he studied plants from

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. Meanwhile, he called on the French nobility to take up botany as a hobby alongside hunting.R.L. Williams, ''Botanophilia in Eighteenth-Century France: The Spirit of the Enlightenment'', Springer Science & Business Media, 31 Oct 2001, p.

/ref> In 1735, he published, '' Histoire des plantes qui naissent aux environs d'Aix et dans plusieurs autres endroits de la Provence'', which describes 1,400 plants. In the preface, he writes about the history of botany in Provence and the medicinal uses of plants.University of Wales Online Exhibitions: From Herbals to Floras: Garidel (1715)
/ref>

Death

He died on 6 June 1737 in Aix-en-Provence.

Legacy

The garidella, a subclass of the thalamiflorae, was named in his honour.

References

1658 births 1737 deaths People from Aix-en-Provence 17th-century French botanists 18th-century French botanists {{France-botanist-stub