Antonio José Cavanilles

Who was Antonio José Cavanilles?

Antonio José Cavanilles was a leading Spanish taxonomic botanist of the 18th century. He named many plants, particularly from Oceania. He named at least 100 genera, about 54 of which were still used in 2004, including Calycera, Cobaea, Galphimia, and Oleandra.

Cavanilles was born in Valencia. He lived in Paris from 1777 to 1781, where he followed careers as a clergyman and a botanist, thanks to André Thouin and Antoine Laurent de Jussieu. He was one of the first Spanish scientists to use the classification method invented by Carl Linnaeus.

From Paris he moved to Madrid, where he was director of the Royal Botanical Garden and Professor of botany from 1801 to 1804. He died in Madrid in 1804.