Aimé Bonpland


(1773 - 1858)

In 1799, after serving as a military surgeon during the French Revolution, the French botanist Aimé Bonpland went to South America with the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt. He continued his own acquisition of novel specimens, which were catalogued at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. He taught as a professor in Buenos Aires and was arrested as a spy in Paraguay before moving to Argentina and becoming a yerba maté farmer.