Jean Louis Marie Poiret

This article is about the botanist Jean Poiret. For the scriptwriter and actor, see Jean Poiret.

Jean Louis Marie Poiret (11 June 1755 in Saint-Quentin – 7 April 1834 in Paris) was a French clergyman, botanist, and explorer.

From 1785 to 1786, he was sent by Louis XVI to Algeria to study the flora. After the French Revolution, he became a professor of natural history at the Écoles Centrale of Aisne.

The genus Poiretia of the legume family Fabaceae was named after him in 1807 by Étienne Pierre Ventenat.

Selected publications

• Coquilles fluviatiles et terrestres observées dans le département de l'Aisne et aux environs de Paris. Prodrome. – pp. i–xi [1–11], 1–119. Paris. (Barrois, Soissons); (1801).
• Leçons de flore: Cours complet de botanique (1819–1820); (illus. by P. J. F. Turpin).
• Voyage en Barbarie, …, pendant les années 1785 et 1786 (1789).
• Histoire philosophique, littéraire, économique des plantes d'Europe; (1825–1829).
• with Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck Encyclopédie méthodique: Botanique; (1789–1817).
• with Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature: Botanique; (1819–1823).

Tribute

"Poiretia, la revue naturaliste du Maghreb" is a free online natural history journal created in 2008. It discusses (in French) the flora and fauna inventory, description, and mapping in north-western Africa (Maghreb). Its name is dedicated to Jean Louis Marie Poiret, as a tribute to his famous Voyage en Barbarie published in 1789.

Further reading

• Zander, Robert et al. (eds.) (1984) Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen (13th ed.) Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5.