Antoine Laurent de Jussieu

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Antoine Laurent de Jussieu

Born	April 12 1748(1748-04-12) Lyon, France
Died	September 17 1836 (aged 88)
Residence	France
Nationality	France
Field	Botany
Institutions	Jardin des Plantes
Known for	Classification of flowering plants
Botany auth. abbrev.	Juss.

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

Jussieu was born in Lyon, the nephew of the botanist Bernard de Jussieu. He went to Paris to study medicine, graduating in 1770. He was professor of botany at the Jardin des Plantes from 1770 to 1826. His son Adrien-Henri also became a botanist.

In his study of flowering plants, Genera plantarum (1789), Jussieu adopted a methodology based on the use of multiple characters to define groups, an idea derived from Scottish-French naturalist Michel Adanson. This was a significant improvement over the original system of Linnaeus, who classified plants into families based on the number of stamens and pistils. Jussieu did keep Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature, resulting in a work that was far-reaching in its impact; many of the present-day plant families are still attributed to Jussieu. Morton's 1981 History of botanical science counts 76 of Jussieu's families conserved in the ICBN, versus just 11 for Linnaeus, for instance.

He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, Les Neuf Sœurs.

Works

Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de (1789). Genera Plantarum, secundum ordines naturales disposita juxta methodum in Horto Regio Parisiensi exaratam. OCLC 315729. Retrieved on 2007-02-19.

References

Duane Isely, One hundred and one botanists (Iowa State University Press, 1994), pp. 118-120
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article "De Jussieu", a publication now in the public domain.
"De Jussieu". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.

The standard author abbreviation Juss. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[1]

Persondata
NAME	Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Botanist who classified the flowering plants
DATE OF BIRTH	April 12, 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lyon, France
DATE OF DEATH	September 17, 1836
PLACE OF DEATH