Adriaan van Royen (11 November 1704 in Leiden – 28 February 1779 in Leiden) was a Dutch

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. He was a professor at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

and is associated with Carl Linnaeus. He is best known for his work on flora of Southeast Asia. Adriaan van Royen formed a close relationship with Linnaeus, who had visited the Leiden Botanic Garden during a stay in Leiden between 1737 and 1738. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1728. He died in Leiden in 1779. The genus '' Royena'' L. (= '' Diospyros'' sect. ''Royena'' (L.) F.White), in the

Ebenaceae The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768 species of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. It ...

, and ''

Melastoma royenii ''Melastoma'' is a genus in the family Melastomataceae. It has over 100 species distributed around Southeast Asia, India, north to Japan, south to Australia and the Pacific Islands. The number of species should probably be reduced according to s ...

'' Blume. Sutton, D.A. are named after him.

References

1704 births 1779 deaths People from Leiden 18th-century Dutch botanists Leiden University faculty Fellows of the Royal Society {{Netherlands-botanist-stub