Luis Née

Luis Née (July 12, 1735 – October 3, 1807) was a French-born Spanish botanist and prolific collector of plant specimens who accompanied the Malaspina Expedition on its five-year scientific exploration of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands.

[1][2] By 1772 Née was working for the pharmacy at the Monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Espina and collecting plants in the mountains of Santander and Asturias.

[3] In addition to collecting preserved specimens for the herbarium, Née gathered live plants which he then grew in his personal gardens.

In addition to collecting plants, Malaspina recalled an incident when Née and Pineda tested a local species of Solanum on themselves resulting in severe vomiting and overall pain and swelling.

[4] When they reached Acapulco on March 27, 1791, Née and Pineda settled down for an extended period of botanizing in Mexico while the expedition proceeded along the coast of North America to Alaska.

Née was anxious to explore the interior of the island, so he arranged to be left at Sorsogon Bay and travelled alone to Manila where he met up with the expedition three months later.

This was their last port of call; war was threatening in Europe and Malaspina was ordered to prepare his ships for possible battle and return home.

[4] Née remained in Cadiz until December, sorting and arranging the enormous number of plant specimens that had been collected by the expedition.

[1] Then in 1976, botanist Cyrus Longworth Lundell published Neeopsis, a monotypic genus of flowering plants from Guatemala, belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae also in his honour.