Pierre Poivre

Who was Pierre Poivre?

Pierre Poivre was a French horticulturalist born in Lyon; a missionary to China and Cochinchina, Intendant of the Islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, and wearer of the cordon of St. Michel. He was an uncle to renowned French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat.

In his early 20s he was a missionary in Far Eastern locations such as Cochinchina, Guangzhou and Macau. In 1745 as a member of the French East India Company, while on a journey to the East Indies, he was struck by a cannonball on the wrist while being engaged in a naval battle with the British. The injury required amputation of part of his right arm.

In the 1760s, Poivre became administrator of Isle de France and Ile Bourbon in the Indian Ocean. On Mauritius, he is renowned for the construction of a botanical garden consisting of trees, shrubs and plants imported from tropical sites worldwide. Here, he was later succeeded as director by botanist Jean-Nicolas Céré.

He is also remembered for introducing to Mauritius and Reunion, spice plants such as clove and nutmeg, which at the time were controlled by the Dutch, who had a virtual monopoly on the spices in the East Indies. In order to obtain these spices, Poivre had to arrange clandestine smuggling forays to obtain plants and seeds from the Indies. Poivre was also responsible for introducing spice plants to the Seychelles.