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Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival November 12 - 16, 2003 in Brevard County, Florida A celebration of birds and wildlife. |
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Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival November 12 - 16, 2003 in Brevard County, Florida A celebration of birds and wildlife. |
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André Michaux (1746-1803) was the first trained botanist to extensively explore the American wilderness east of the Mississippi River, the Hudson Bay area of Canada, the Bahamas, and Spanish East Florida. For 11 years (1785-1796) this indefatigable and remarkable man, bearing the title of Royal Botanist of King Louis XVI of France, discovered numerous plants unknown to science. He also established two early botanical nursery-gardens in America. Michaux's assignment to the New World was due to the fortitude, enthusiasm, and competency in plant identification and propagation that he displayed in prior explorations in France, Spain, England, and Persia.
Some of the accomplishments of Michaux, other than collecting, propagating, and discovery of plants, include publication of Flora Boreali-Americana (1803), the first systematic account of North America's flora; first trained naturalist to explore the Hudson Bay area; and the first naturalist chosen by Thomas Jefferson to explore western North America. This effort later became the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Michaux knew Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Isaac Shelby, and numerous other prominent figures of early American history. Despite these attributes, André Michaux has not received the acclaim by scientists and laypersons he so richly deserves. The naturalists, John and William Bartram, are much better known and often are cited in books regarding the natural history of the Southeast, including Florida. Michaux is rarely mentioned. Even William Bartram, who met André Michaux several times, recognized the Frenchman's abilities when he wrote that Michaux was one of the "few collectors who could traverse the ground that he and his father had covered and find plants that they had missed."
In the early spring of 1788, André Michaux, his son François, and a young Black assistant, arrived in St. Augustine from Charleston. The Second Spanish Period of Florida history was in its fourth year. Having gained permission from Governor Vizente Manuel de Zéspedes to explore Florida, Michaux purchased a canoe, provisions, and hired two oarsmen. The Michaux entourage left St. Augustine on March 12. His five-week trip down the east Florida coast was a little past latitude 28 degrees, 15 minutes. Fearing possible conflicts with Indians, Michaux decided not to venture to the Cape of Florida as originally planned.
On March 29, the party arrived in the Haulover area of Mosquito Lagoon, which is located in present day north Brevard County. They crossed over to the Indian River Lagoon and explored the environs of what is now Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore until April 6, when they departed to return to St. Augustine. Some of the plants they found while in the area include the giant leather fern (Acrostichum danaeifolium), the bigflower pawpaw (Asimina obovata), shoestring fern (lVittaria lineata), and water pimpernel (Samolus ebracteatus). The East Coast trip was shortly followed by trip up the St. Johns River to about 11 miles past present-day Blue Spring in Volusia County. Michaux's trip to Florida was fruitful and yielded several new species of grasses, sedges, and tropical species.
