João Barbosa Rodrigues

Who was João Barbosa Rodrigues?

João Barbosa Rodrigues was a Brazilian botanist and engineer.

He was born in São Gonçalo do Sapucaí and raised in Campanha, in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He returned to Rio de Janeiro with his family in 1858. He first dedicated to the commerce, but he was always interested in natural science, collecting insects and plants. He became a teacher of drawing and specialized in botany, under the supervision of Francisco Freire Allemão e Cysneiro. He was in the Amazon Forest in a scientific mission of the imperial government. Some years later he organized and directed, in Manaus, the Botanic Garden, opened in 1883 under the sponsorship of the Princess Isabel and closed later. In 1890 he became the director of the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro, which he directed until his death. He published various works, and one of his most important contributions was his work about orchids, in two volumes, Genera et species orchidearum novarum.