Jacques Denys Choisy

Jacques Denys (Denis) Choisy (5 April 1799, Jussy – 26 November 1859, Geneva) was a Swiss Protestant clergyman and botanist.

He studied theology, law, humanities and sciences at the Académie de Genève. In 1821 he became ordained as a minister, and during the following year, furthered his education in Paris. During his stay in Paris, he was accepted as a member of the Société d'histoire naturelle. Following his return to Geneva in 1824, he was named chair of rational philosophy at the Academy, a position he maintained until 1847.

As a student in Geneva, he came under the influence of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, and in the process, developed a lifelong passion for botany. The botanical genus Choisya (family Rutaceae) is named in his honor.

As a theologian/philosopher he published works with titles such as, "Des doctrines exclusives en philosophie rationelle" (1828) and "Les lois morales: Fragment d'un cours de philosophie morale" (1836).

Selected botanical works Prodromus d'une monographie de la famille des hypéricinées, (9 editions issued from 1821 to 1983) – Prodomus of a monograph on Hypericineae. Descriptions des Hydroléacées, 1830 – Descriptions of Hydroleaceae. Convolvulaceae orientales, 1834 – Convolvulaceae Oriental Mémoire sur les familles des Ternstroemiacées et Camelliacées, 1854 – Treatise on the families Ternstroemiaceae and Camelliaceae.