Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia.

Here, one of his teachers was abbot Ignazio Mezzetti (1821–1876), a passionate collector of botanical specimens, who inspired him to pursue botany and assemble a herbarium.

After finishing his studies, Beccari got to know the young Giacomo Doria in Genoa, who had traveled widely in Mesopotamia, and the two decided to conduct an expedition to Sarawak in northern Borneo, which was then poorly explored.

To prepare for this voyage, Beccari stayed in London from February–April 1865 to study the natural history collections there, in particular at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

After a short productive period, Doria's health worsened dramatically by March 1866, forcing him to return to Italy.

In 1866 he discovered and drew in his notebook the plant Thismia neptunis of the family Thismiaceae; only after 151 years, in 2017, was this discovery confirmed.

[6] He collaborated with specialists to study particular groups such as seagrasses with P. Ascherson,[7] pteridophytes with Vincenzo de Cesati,[8] mosses with Hampe,[9] lichens with August von Krempelhuber[10] etc.

From February–October 1870, Beccari joined an expedition alongside geologist Arturo Issel and zoologist Orazio Antinori to Eritrea.

After D'Albertis had fallen seriously ill, and they had managed to return to Ambon, he departed with the Italian corvette Vettor Pisani which they chanced upon there.

Since the season was not conducive to an expedition to New Guinea, he spent the summer in Bali, Surabaja, Semarang, then proceeded through the interior of Java to Bogor to sort his collections.

From November 1875 to January 1876, Beccari accompanied a Dutch bathymetric survey, which allowed him to visit places as far as the Yos Sudarso Bay.

Enrico d'Albertis then returned directly while Beccari made botanical studies in West Sumatra, especially around Mount Singgalang, where he amassed a collection of about 1,000 species.

Between 1878 and 1879, Beccari was Director of the Botanical Collections and Garden of the Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History of Florence (he was appointed while on his voyage).

He began to publish a large work, Malesia, mainly detailing results from the study of his collection, but the publication was stopped after some volumes due to lack of funds.

While the greatest part of Beccari's archive is preserved at the University of Florence, some travel notes can be found in the library of the Museo Galileo.