Botany - Notable Botanists

Notable Botanists

The following botanists made major contributions to the ways in which botany has been studied.

• Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC), "The Father of Botany", established botanical science through his lecture notes, Enquiry into Plants.
• Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40–90 AD), Greek physician, pharmacologist, toxicologist and botanist, author of De Materia Medica (Regarding Medical Matters).
• Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī (828–896), Persian, Kurdish or Arab botanist, historian, geographer, astronomer, mathematician, and founder of Arabic botany.
• Su Song (1020–1101), Chinese polymath, botanist, compiled the Bencao Tujing ('Illustrated Pharmacopoeia'), a treatise on pharmaceutical botany, zoology, and mineralogy.
• Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati (c. 1200), Andalusian-Arab botanist and agricultural scientist, and a pioneer in experimental botany.
• Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248), Andalusian-Arab scientist, botanist, pharmacist, physician, and author of one of the largest botanical encyclopedias.
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
• John Ray (1627–1705), English naturalist, botanist, and zoologist; father of natural history.
• Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (1652–1723), German physician and botanist; introduced the concept of classifying plants based on the structure of their flower, which influenced de Tournefort and Linnaeus.
• Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708), French botanist; first to clearly define the concept of genus for plants.
• Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of Binomial nomenclature; known as the father of modern taxonomy and also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, (1744–1829), French naturalist, botanist, biologist, academic, and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws.
• Aimé Bonpland (1773–1858), French explorer and botanist, who accompanied Alexander von Humboldt during five years of travel in Latin America.
• Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778–1841), Swiss botanist, originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin.
• David Douglas (1799–1834), Scottish botanical explorer of North America and China, who imported many ornamental plants into Europe.
• Richard Spruce (1817–1893), English botanist and explorer who carried out a detailed study of the Amazon flora.
• Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), English botanist and explorer; second winner of Darwin Medal.
• Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884), Austrian Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.
• Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927), American botanist, the first director of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University.
• Agustín Stahl (1842–1917), Puerto Rican doctor, who conducted investigations and experiments in the fields of botany, ethnology, and zoology in the Caribbean region.
• Luther Burbank (1849–1926), American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science.
• George Ledyard Stebbins, Jr. (1906–2000), American widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists of the 20th century, developed a comprehensive synthesis of plant evolution incorporating genetics.
• Norman Borlaug (1914–2009), American agronomist, known for breeding high yielding wheat varieties. Dubbed the "father of the green revolution"
• Richard Evans Schultes (1915–2001), American botanist and explorer, known as "The Father of Ethnobotany", Linnean Society gold medal winner.