Pierre-Paul Saunier

Who was Pierre-Paul Saunier?

Pierre-Paul Saunier was a gardener who worked first at Montbard in Eastern France, and then at the Jardin du Roi in Paris where he was a protégé of head gardener André Thouin. In 1785 Thouin selected him to accompany the botanist André Michaux to North America where he was to assist in the establishment of a royal garden for the French crown.

Saunier was one of a number of gardener-botanists sent by Thouin from the Jardin du Roi on voyages of exploration to procure plants and plant products for the benefit of the French nation and to assist botanists in the collection, transport and preservation of botanical specimens.

Saunier’s life story has been assembled by William Robbins and Mary Howson of the New York Botanical Garden and Department of Botany, Columbia University: their account includes lists of seeds and plants sent by Saunier to France in 1788, 1790 and 1791 together with literature and letters relating to his life.