Pier Antonio Micheli (11 December 1679 – 1 January 1737) was a noted Italian botanist,[1] professor of botany in Pisa, curator of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, author of Nova plantarum genera iuxta Tournefortii methodum disposita.

He discovered the spores of mushrooms, was a leading authority on cryptogams, and coined several important genera of microfungi including Aspergillus and Botrytis.

He taught himself Latin and began the study of plants at a young age under Bruno Tozzi.

[2] In 1706 he was appointed botanist to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, director of the Florence gardens, and a professor at the University of Pisa.

[7] He was a collector of plant and mineral specimens,[8] and on one of his collecting trips, in 1736, he contracted pleurisy, of which he soon after died in Florence.