Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de (1748–1836)

French botanist who developed one of the first systems of classification for plants. His study of flowering plants, Genera plantarum 1789, became the accepted basis of classification for flowering plants. Building on the foundation laid by Linnaeus, he produced one of the first taxonomies (classifications based on the physical characteristics of plants). Many elements of Jussieu's classification remain in use today.

Jussieu was born in Lyon, the nephew of the eminent 18th-century botanist Bernard Jussieu. Like his uncle, he went to Paris to study medicine and graduated 1770. He then became the deputy to the professor of botany at the Jardin du Roi. In London, he studied the specimen collections and herbariums of Joseph Banks and Linnaeus. In 1793, he was made professor of botany at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, which was formed from the Jardin du Roi following the French Revolution. He went on to establish the herbarium at the museum before retiring 1826.