Antoine Laurent de Jussieu

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (April 12, 1748 - September 17, 1836) was a French botanist.

In his study of flowering plants, Genera plantarum (1789), Jussieu classified many of the families used today. Prior to him, Linnaeus classified plants into families based on the number of stamens and pistils. This put a lot of unrelated plants together and split some related ones apart. Jussieu classified plants based on a natural system.

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.

Works

• Genera Plantarum, secundum ordines naturales disposita juxta methodum in Horto Regio Parisiensi exaratam, anno 1774. MS. notes. Parisiis, 1789.