Henri Pittier

Henri Pittier alias Henri François de Fabrega Pittier (born August 13, 1857 in Bex , † January 27, 1950 in Caracas , Venezuela) was a naturalist and biologist with a focus on Neotropics . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Pittier ".

Live and act

Henri Pittier was one of the most important natural scientists in Switzerland . He conducted research in particular in the Alpine region of Vaud , in tropical Costa Rica , on the Panama Canal and in Venezuela , his last home. He went to Costa Rica in 1887 and then was in Venezuela from 1919 to 1950. There he founded the Instituto Botanico and the National Herbarium, researched Central America with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and collected plants. He wrote extensively about the flora there.

Honors

The first and largest national park in Venezuela was named in his honor (Parque Nacional Henri Pittier) and the Pittier fish rat ( Ichthyomys pittieri ) and the brilliant tetra ( Moenkhausia pittieri ) living there bear his name. Also the plant genera Pittiera Cogn. from the cucurbitaceae family , Pittierella Schltr. from the orchid family (Orchidaceae) and Pittierothamnus Steyerm. from the family of the redness plants (Rubiaceae) are named after him.

literature

Thomas W. Baumann: Pittier, Henri François. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Beatrice Häsler / Thomas W. Baumann: Henri Pittier: Life and work of a Swiss naturalist in the neotropics. Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel 2000, ISBN 3-7245-1132-9
Renate Seitz: Henri Pittier (1857–1950). The “Swiss Humboldt” on its 150th birthday. In: Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau 60 (8), pp. 404-409 (2007), ISSN 0028-1050

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic plant names - extended edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .

Web links

Literature by and about Henri Pittier in the catalog of the German National Library
Author entry and list of the described plant names for Henri Pittier at the IPNI

personal data
SURNAME	Pittier, Henri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Fabrega Pittier, Henri François de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss naturalist and biologist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 13, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bex
DATE OF DEATH	January 27, 1950
Place of death	Caracas

[Burkhardt_2018-1] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic plant names - extended edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .