Candolle meaning

Augustin Pyramus or Pyrame de Candolle was a Swiss botanist. Within a couple of years de Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although de Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography, agronomy, paleontology, medical botany, and economic botany.

De Candolle originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin and the principle of natural selection. During his work with plants, de Candolle noticed that plant leaf movements follow a nearhour cycle in constant light, suggesting that an internal biological clock exists. De Candolle's descendants continued his work on plant classification; son Alphonse and grandson Casimir de Candolle contributed to the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, a catalog of plants begun by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.

His family descended from one of the ancient families of Provence in France, but relocated to Geneva at the end of the 16th century to escape religious persecution. At age seven de Candolle contracted a severe case of hydrocephalus, which significantly affected his childhood. Nevertheless, he is said to have had great aptitude for learning, distinguishing himself in school with his rapid acquisition of knowledge in classical and general literature and his ability to write fine poetry.

He spent four years at the Geneva Academy, studying science and law according to his father's wishes. In , he moved to Paris after Geneva had been annexed to the French Republic.

Alphonse de candolle

The position elevated de Candolle's reputation and also led to valuable instruction from Desfontaines himself. De Candolle's first books, Plantarum historia succulentarum 4 vols. The premise of de Candolle's method is that taxa do not fall along a linear scale; they are discrete, not continuous. Lamarck had originally published this work in , with a second edition in