Antoine Gouan (1733-1821), a convinced Linnaean, taught at the Montpellier medical school - apparently it was from him that Broussonet learned of Linnaeus’ work.

His thesis was entitled Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire de la respiration des poissons, which he defended in 1778.

Despite his youth, the professors of the University of Montpellier asked that he be made his father’s successor when the latter retired (a rare but not uncommon request).

1780 London offered Broussonet all he could wish for: an active scientific community; naturalists already embracing Linnaeus’ ideas; collections rich in new species; and an influential friend, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820).

Broussonet also spent several months botanizing in the South of France and Catalonia with John Sibthorp (1758-1796) with Father Pierre André Pourret (1754-1818).

[1] Broussonet, then twenty-eight in 1789, enthusiastically welcomed revolutionary ideas, as was characteristic of his generation, but he was horrified by the tactics of the extreme left.

Having become friends with Simpson, American consul in Gibraltar, Broussonet accompanied him as physician on a diplomatic mission to Morocco, where he studied the flora.

In 1799, Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746–1800) successfully honored Broussonet with the genus Broussonetia (family Moraceae, tribe Moreae).

He returned to France in 1803 to prepare for this new assignment, only to learn that Chaptal had changed his mind and had had him made professor at the medical school of Montpellier, to succeed Gouan.

Besides its teaching duties, Broussonet's new title, Directeur du Jardin des Plantes de Montpellier, put him in charge of the botanical gardens.

He restored its former layout and, helped financially by Chaptal, built an orangery, dug ponds, and enlarged the collections, of which he published a list in 1805 - Elenchus plantarum horti botanici Monspeliensis.

Broussonet was preparing to describe the 1,500 species collected at Tenerife when he suffered a stroke that caused a gradually worsening aphasia.

On 17 August 1806 he notified the director of the medical school that he must resign his post, and a year later, he suffered a final stroke that caused his death.