Jean-Louis Berlandier

Jean-Louis Berlandier (1803 – 1851) was a French-Mexican naturalist, medical doctor, and anthropologist.

Early life Berlandier was born in Geneva, and later trained as a botanist there. During this time he probably served an apprenticeship to a pharmacist.

Career In his early 20s on the recommendation of his mentor, Auguste Pyrame De Candolle, he joined a Mexican scientific expedition as a biologist and plant specialist. Berlandier arrived at Pánuco, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in December 1826. He collected plants in the surrounding area before continuing into Texas as part of the Mexican Boundary Commission. The commission left Mexico City on November 10, 1827, under the command of Manuel de Mier y Terán. Berlandier made botanical collections around Laredo, Texas, in February 1828 and around San Antonio, Gonzales, and San Felipe in March, April, and May 1828. After a brief trip to the interior of the country after he contacted malaria, he returned to San Antonio. He collected botanical specimens, made notes on animal species, and collected information on over forty Native American tribes in the surrounding territory, with special emphasis on the Comanche. In the fall of 1828, with a group of 30 Mexican soldiers led by Colonel José Francisco Ruiz, Berlandier accompanied Comanche leaders Reyuna and El Ronca on a bear and American bison hunt on open lands northwest of San Antonio. From November 19 to December 18, Berlandier accompanied Ruiz to explore the silver mines on the San Saba River. On February 3, 1829, he also joined a force led by Antonio Elosúa to put down an uprising against the presidio commander at Goliad.

After the commission was dissolved in November 1829, Berlandier settled in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and became a physician. He made additional botanical and animal collecting trips in Texas and other parts of Mexico, including returning to Goliad in 1834.

Berlandier, Jean L.; & Chowell, Rafael (1828–1829). [Vocabularies of languages of south Texas and the lower Rio Grande]. (Additional manuscripts, no. 38720, in the British Library, London.) Berlandier, Jean L.; & Chowell, Rafael (1850). Luis Berlandier and Rafael Chovell. Diario de viage de la Commission de Limites. Mexico.

Associated eponyms Animals Rana berlandieri (Baird, 1859) Gopherus berlandieri Agassiz, 1857 Taxidea taxus berlandieri Baird, 1858 Plants Abutilon berlandieri A.Gray ex S.Watson Acacia berlandieri Benth. Anemone berlandieri Pritz. Astragalus crassicarpus var. berlandieri Barneby Berlandiera DC.Citharexylum berlandieri B.L.Rob. Chenopodium berlandieri Moq. Echinocereus berlandieri (Engelm.) Haage f. Esenbeckia berlandieri Baill. ex Hemsl. Fraxinus berlandieriana DC. Linum berlandieri Hook. Lobelia berlandieri A.DC. Lycium berlandieri Dunal Oenothera berlandieri (Spach) Steud.