Pierre Jean Marie Delavay

Pierre Jean Marie Delavay

Père Jean Marie Delavay (1834–1895) was a French missionary, explorer and botanist.

He was sent to China in 1867, serving first in Guangdong, then moving to Kunming, Yunnan, where he remained until his death.

He was an avid plant collector, sending over 200,000 herbarium specimens back to France, from which numerous new genera and over 1,500 new species were described, many by Adrien René Franchet of the Paris Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

He is commemorated in the names of several plants, including Delavay's Fir Abies delavayi, Delavay's Magnolia Magnolia delavayi and Delavay's Peony Paeonia delavayi.

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