Aimé Bonpland
A brilliant botanist who named thousands of New World plants, yet spent years as a political prisoner in Paraguay, forgotten by Europe.
1773–1858 (age 85)·French explorer and botanist·Birthday: August 22
Biography
Aimé Bonpland’s life reads like a botanical adventure novel. Trained as a surgeon, his true passion was plants. His destiny was sealed when he joined the Prussian aristocrat Alexander von Humboldt on a five-year scientific odyssey through the Americas. Bonpland was the workhorse of the partnership, collecting, preserving, and classifying over 6,000 species, many unknown to European science. After returning, he could have settled into a comfortable academic life in Paris. Instead, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, he returned to South America. His success in cultivating yerba mate in Argentina drew the paranoid attention of Paraguay’s dictator, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who imprisoned him for nearly a decade. Though eventually released, Bonpland never returned to Europe, choosing instead to live out his days as a modest farmer and regional doctor in what is now Uruguay, his monumental contributions to botany overshadowed by his famous partner and his own tumultuous later years.
#1 When Aimé Was Born
The biggest hits of 1773
Aimé's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1773Born
1778Started school
1786Became a teenager
1789Could drive
1791Could vote
1794Turned 21
1803Turned 30
1813Turned 40
1823Turned 50
1833Turned 60
1843Turned 70
1853Turned 80
1858Died at 85
Key Achievements
- Co-led a groundbreaking five-year expedition across the Americas with Alexander von Humboldt, collecting tens of thousands of plant specimens.
- Documented and scientifically described thousands of plant species previously unknown to European science.
- Authored major sections of the 30-volume publication "Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent," a cornerstone of New World botany.
Did You Know?
He was imprisoned in Paraguay for nearly ten years for allegedly spying, simply because he was successfully cultivating yerba mate.
Napoleon Bonaparte's wife, Empress Joséphine, appointed him the superintendent of her gardens at Malmaison after his return from the Humboldt expedition.
Despite his fame, he died in relative obscurity and poverty in South America, having given away most of his possessions.
“I will die here among my orange trees in Santa Ana.”
